Star Wars: Darth Maul: Flame of Passion
by Tenkai Nankobo 101
Summary: Darth Maul... infamous apprentice to Darth Sidious and slayer of the benevolent Qui-Gon Jinn. But what if once, the servant of the Dark Side had a chance to be good? Find out how he could have become a hero before Lord Sidious turned him into a fiend.
1. Chapter 1

Darth Maul

Flame of Passion

By

Christopher Cleveland

Author's Note: Now before I get any ravings about having ruined the character of Darth Maul, I would like to address a couple things. First, I freaking _love _the character that we see in _Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace_. I mean, who doesn't love a guy who needs only a few lines of dialogue and then his actions speak for him if those actions are those of a killer, right? Now, this doesn't take place too close to Episode I because by then his only passion is to kill a Jedi but it's not too distant from it either. That is the second thing I need to address so here's the final point to make: I noticed in _Star Wars: The Clone Wars _how Savage Opress, brother to Darth Maul, had once been good and then Mother Talzin and the Nightsisters made him evil for his service to Asajj Ventress and Count Dooku. So I decided to experiment with the character of Darth Maul and see if it might be possible to at least give him a _chance _at good while in no way afflicting with canonical sources of who he is. Besides that, I wish you enjoy this story and would appreciate _constructed _criticism on any other issues there might be if any. Thank you for your patience.

Prologue

Mile after mile of computer screens and keyboards surrounded the scientist who wore glasses due to being near-sighted. His uniform was the same white coat, white shirt, black tie, black pants, and black shoes of any scientist. The young brown hair was trimmed and combed and his hands were covered by black gloves. He was entranced by his work which was not unusual considering that he was working on the next big thing: creating a gateway into parallel dimensions of the galaxy.

Each computer screen had a document pulled up on it as well as notes that this young man had made during his experiments. His equipment was distributed across the massive room so that any time he typed in new data, the machines could begin working on creating a device immediately. Despite a slightly chubby belly and a thick beard, this scientist was actually quite handsome for his age and considering that he had worked non-stop for the last two months. "Doctor Claudius, do you want us to begin creating the new design for the device?" asked an automated voice from the computer.

"A portable device that creates portals to other dimensions and other times isn't easy. Proceed with the designs as soon as I punch in the last bits of data," answered the doctor. Shortly after, a red light began to blink and a droid alerted him that he was receiving a call. "Send it through, if I know my clients well enough, this will be my highest bidding one," Claudius said to the droid.

"Doctor Draco, it is so good to be able to speak with you again. Have you been busy with the design that I have requested for you?" asked the hologram which was of a man in the robes of a politician. "Ah Chancellor Valorum what a pleasant surprise and yes the bomb is almost ready, I just have to add the outer shells to it and it'll be ready for your use. And please just call me Claudius or Doctor when I'm not in your actual vicinity," Claudius answered.

"Very well Claudius, when can I expect the bomb to be shipped to Coruscant and duplications made?" asked Valorum. "Well, you can expect this first one within the week but I don't know when duplications will begin. This is a very hard weapon to make, Chancellor and materials for another may be hard to come by," Claudius answered. "I understand that and I will provide you the credits for three more like it but that's all I can guarantee at the moment," Valorum said.

"That much money will be all I need, thank you for your support," Claudius said. "This has been a very tricky business but I thank you for your help. Will you be coming to lunch again?" Valorum asked. "No, I have something else I need to start work on when the bomb is finished," Claudius answered before adding it was confidential.

_The fool, 'confidential' is enough to throw him off my tail any day _thought Claudius to himself. And when Valorum had said goodbye and disconnected, Claudius resumed his work.

Chapter One

Patience was not only the name of a virtue but also a command that Ophelia was used to hearing from her master, a harsh and strict woman named Odette. "Patience my young Padawan, you must learn patience!" she would hear her master say. "Yes master, sorry master," she would answer back. Ophelia had been learning how to use the Force to move certain objects for the better portion of a month now and every time she tried, she would rush it and lose control.

"Rush the Force and it slips beyond your control but let it arise within you slowly and it remains within your limits. Try again and this time, please try to learn patience," Odette said to her after one session. Again, Ophelia cleared her mind of all other thoughts as she concentrated on moving the rocks that surrounded her in a circle. This time, when the rocks began to slowly ascend to level with her face, she felt the excitement and the joy sear into her mind but she kept it under control.

She completed the exercise by making the colored rocks slowly spin around her three times. After that, she carefully set them down where they had been before and brought her mind back with her body. "Well done Ophelia, you are one step closer to becoming a master now than you were before you completed the exercise. You're almost ready for the Trials now, do you feel anything about that?" Odette asked.

"Enthusiasm to please my master in the Trials and confidence in my ability to manipulate my surroundings with my mind," Ophelia answered. "Very good Padawan, that will be all for today," Odette told her. Then Ophelia watched as the wizened Jedi Master walked out of the forest they had practiced in and soon followed her, her brown cloak somewhat cumbersome. But she saw how Odette's caused her no trouble as she glided over rock and tree with ease, her double-bladed lightsaber on the right side of her belt.

Their ship was waiting for them when Ophelia finally caught up to Odette and their pilot was quick to launch their transport off the ground. "How was training today girls?" asked the pilot who was also chewing on a bit of tobacco. "It was the same old routine again except that I actually completed it this time," Ophelia answered. "Nice, you may yet be a Master while I'm alive!" the pilot cheered with zeal.

"Thanks Hal for having believed in me from the first day," Ophelia said. "You kidding me? There was no reason for me not to believe in you," Hal replied. She smiled because that was how Hal normally was towards her although she never could understand why he treated Odette differently.

Was it something that happened a long time ago? Had they had some kind of relationship besides pilot and passenger? Was it something concerning Ophelia herself or perhaps her brother? She never could get any of those questions answered and had given up trying a long time ago.

Her master's response to those sorts of questions had always been designed to tell her she shouldn't ask anyway. Coruscant was reached in an incredibly quick hyperspace trip from the forest moon they enjoyed training on. But it was enough time for Ophelia to think about all that she had been and what she sensed she was becoming. And what's more, she could see how her master was distancing from her with each and every day that passed.

A long time ago, Odette had said that she did that with her last Padawan in case he was destined to die. So when he did, she would not feel too heartbroken and be in violation of the Jedi Order's restrictions on attachment. Luckily though, he had survived and she was quick to rekindle her relationship with him but made sure to keep it strictly professional. That is, if she could help it but she didn't have to worry about that after he decided to leave the Order for personal reasons.

Last anyone heard of him, he had begun a new life as a warrior for justice that worked alone and used the Force to achieve virtuous ends by the standards of his people. He had started a family with a wife and three kids, even teaching all of them in the ways of the Force and creating a group of protectors of justice for his sector. Although his wife wasn't Force-attuned, she found her use in the group as the main computer and technology expert, even making the gadgets that were often used by her husband and their children. She herself had only met him once or twice and each time, he had looked on her as though she were to be his death one day.

Perhaps that was another factor as to why Odette was distancing herself from her. She sensed something dark that Ophelia had yet to learn about herself. "You will learn when the time is appropriate," Odette had once said to her. But when would that time come around?

Would it be soon or would it be in the distant future? Would Master Windu or Master Yoda know about her destiny and actually have a straight face when revealing it to her? How could she even know to ask them about her destiny in the first place? So many questions and not enough answers to even remotely begin a search into what was in store for her.

The good thing was that she was being assigned a new mission that would take her mind off it. According to the Council, Chancellor Valorum would need a Jedi escort in his rendezvous with a scientist by the name of Claudius Draco. _Claudius Draco? Draco is _my _last name, could this be my long-lost brother _she asked herself.

"Do not be so optimistic about meeting your brother. He is responsible for the deaths of your parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins back on your homeworld. 'All in the name of science' as he said it," Odette told her with some disgust. "You say not to be vengeful yet here you are being that way about my brother, why when it was _our _family he killed and not _yours_?" Ophelia asked.

"I'm not vengeful about that, I'm weary of letting you go meet him for the first time in twelve years. If I know him from when I met him, he has not changed a bit," Odette answered. "But then maybe he has," Ophelia said. After that, neither said any more but went with Valorum anyway.

**Meditation was always an escape** from the harsh and twisted will of his superior. This was the way Darth Maul had known it since he was a boy. Besides meditation for a greater immersion with the Dark Side, only one passion enthralled him more: the thrill of a good hunt and the promise of an honorable kill. For the past few years, his double-sided lightsaber had only taken the lives of mere pirates and space thieves, the very thought of which making him want to vomit.

_Where is the chance for the blood of a Jedi that I was promised? Where master? _he would ask himself. And it seemed as though his thoughts had been heard because at that moment, his master, Darth Sidious, entered and assured him of good news. "Your chance at a Jedi kill comes within the next six standard hours," he said.

Lord Maul smiled with zeal since now, a true test of his lightsaber skills would surely be on its way. "Chancellor Finis Valorum will meet with Doctor Claudius Draco in the Town Square. It will be during the less crowded hours of the night so you will already know how to make the best of that," Sidious explained. "What does this have to do with any Jedi, my master?" Maul asked.

"The Chancellor will suspect the meticulous and cunning Claudius of treachery. Therefore, he will bring along two Jedi Knights as an escort to counter any threat from Claudius' Dark Jedi assassin. If possible, I want both the Chancellor and the good Doctor eliminated but if you can bring back the lightsaber of one of his Jedi bodyguards, I shall be content," Sidious assured him. "I will not fail you Master," Maul vowed.

"One more detail: if the Dark Jedi fights, be sure to somehow eliminate him too. It would be better if you can get his death on the hands of the Jedi but if necessary, kill him yourself," Sidious commanded. "And do you know who the Jedi escorting the Chancellor are?" Maul said, only partially taking in his Master's order. "The Master is named Odette, a very powerful female warrior of the same race as yourself.

"She is grizzled and like you, bears a double-sided lightsaber. The other one will be her Padawan and Claudius' sister: Ophelia Draco. I'm interested more in Ophelia than her master though so if you please, _try _to keep her alive until I find what it is about her that presents conflict to her master and her brother," Sidious answered. "She drives a wedge between her brother and her master?" Maul inquired.

"I'm not sure that's what has them at odds with each other. And the answer to that question is exactly what I'm trying to find out," his master explained. "Then I shall do my best to keep her alive until you can find he answer," Maul said. "Go now my apprentice, the sooner you find a good spot to make your ambush, the better," Sidious said.

And with no more than a bow, Darth Maul of the Sith turned his back to his master and marched to his first confrontation with a Jedi. He called his lightsaber to him through the Force and placed it at his belt when it arrived in his hand. After that, he prepared his ship, the Sith Infiltrator, for yet another trip to the Town Square that Valorum would choose to meet Claudius at. It was a small place that was in the same district as both the Chancellor's office and Darth Maul's hideout here on Coruscant and crowded during the afternoon hours but tamed itself during the night since it was not a place of interest for criminals.

Thankfully, the cloaking device on this ship was too good for even the best scanners the Republic had and he had been able to make many trips to this Square as a result. When he made the landing, he figured that somewhere nearby the port that was always kept open for him would be good so that he could get back to his ship after making the hit. Nobody in the area dared to speak to Lord Maul in case he would break their backs or worse, kill them. So he was allowed to set up his ambush in peace but he was not yet sure if the Jedi would come with their Chancellor to this particular spot but unbeknownst to him, Claudius was making plans of his own for this night.

** Claudius had brought along a pistol** that he always carried for self-defense whenever he traveled and hit it behind his trench coat. He also took the liberty of hiring a skilled Dark Jedi assassin in case the Chancellor ordered his escort to do anything that wouldn't agree with Claudius' future plans. Knowing Odette and knowing his sister Ophelia, he feared no retaliation from them. His only fear when they were concerned was that they would be ordered to attack him.

"Are you sure I alone would be enough against two Jedi?" asked the assassin. "You were hired for precisely these risks. But of course, if you're not up to them, I can always find someone who is assuming you make it out of this night with your life," Claudius answered in irritation. This assassin had been more of an aggravation than a benefit and the good doctor hoped this was the last time he ever had to deal with him.

_If you're going to hire someone who willingly fights and sometimes _kills _Jedi as part of his or her living, why hire this one? There are more out there who would fight my sister and Odette for half a credit with more experience and are more reliable _he told himself. He would never know what luck he was in for at his rendezvous with the Chancellor and his escort of newly appointed bodyguards. "Just remember to go for your lightsaber the moment you see one of them reaching for theirs, okay?" he told the idiot. But no matter, he already knew which one would if it came to that.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

"Greetings Doctor Draco, how are you on this night?" asked the formal and polite Finis Valorum. "Never better Chancellor for now I have perfected the design you have sought," Claudius answered with equal formality. "Hey Claudius, how are you doing brother?" Ophelia, the Jedi Padawan and Claudius' younger sister, blurted out. "Keep away from him, remember what he did to the family you both had," Odette warned her.

"But he's my brother, can't I at least say hi? Besides, I don't even remember what he did all that much if I ever knew," Ophelia begged. "She has a point there Odette, best grant her this request. Oh and do correct me if I'm wrong but Jedi Masters like yourself are supposed to feel no desire for revenge or disgust for people like me?" Claudius replied in agreement.

"Whatever grievance is between you two put it aside. I am here on diplomatic business and precisely that _only_. Am I understood?" the Chancellor demanded. "Dear Chancellor, I assure you that I have only a mind _for _the business at hand," Claudius assured him.

"Good, now how do I best go about paying you for your tremendously excellent piece of artwork?" Valorum inquired. "Donate a fourth of the payment to the orphanages surrounding my block, one fourth of it to charity funds, another fourth to recreation centers, and send the last fourth to my bank accounts. I only need a fourth of my money to live like a king for as long as I'm alive," Claudius explained. "So little for yourself and so much for those around you?" the Chancellor asked in shock.

"Like I said, I only need a fourth of my total income to live happy since I have no wife or children to rear. Thankfully, my eldest brother has already carried on the lineage to another generation so if my sister and I were to die tomorrow, we would not take the family with us," Claudius answered calmly. "I'll make the arrangements when I get back to my office tonight or do you have a portable machine I can use to automatically make the deposits?" Valorum asked. "I brought it with me," Claudius answered.

While they continued to talk, Ophelia whispered how talk made her yawn and fall asleep. "Patience Padawan, it will be over soon and you can get back to training when we return to the Temple," Odette assured her. "This will be a while Mistress so you and my sister make yourselves comfortable in the meantime. After all, business meetings are not the sort of thing to take a girl who can destroy a fourth of Coruscant with only a seventh of her power put into her special scream to," Claudius told her. Odette nearly lost her temper but held it in her gut since she was supposed to be a Master setting an example for her apprentice.

Still, she couldn't bear to hear mention of that scream it was a greater power than she had ever seen in her career. As Claudius said, one seventh of her power put into it could destroy a fourth of Coruscant which forced Odette not to think about what would happen if she went to full power one day. "Ophelia, you are stronger than she leads you to believe and do not doubt it for a moment," Claudius said before taking a seat at table they had walked to while discussing business. "What's so wrong with my scream if I am like every other Jedi and use it only when I _must_?" Ophelia asked.

"You will learn in due time," Odette replied. "I think it will be a little sooner than the amount of time you define as 'due time'," Claudius said. Then he pulled out his concealed blaster and disabled the Chancellor's weapon which hung from his belt. "You know Chancellor, I have nothing against you personally but business is business.

"Besides, at point blank range, the hole in your head will look like somebody stabbed you with a lightsaber," he explained to Valorum. He aimed his WESTAR-34 pistol at Valorum's forehead, aiming to kill him instantly as a lightsaber would. And knowing that he would be no match for the power of that blaster, he tried to run. However, the Dark Jedi's orange lightsaber came down in front of his face, preventing an escape.

"Don't bother, even if he hadn't been there I would still have killed you since I customized this thing to shoot and kill a human being from a distance. Plus I am a good enough aim to take off a chunk of your skull without my glasses on if you tried to run," Claudius warned him. "But why do this?" Valorum asked. "Business is business and I am being paid very well to frame the Jedi for your death _and _complete a very special design I've been working on in secret," Claudius answered.

"What design are you working on?" Ophelia inquired out of curiosity. "I'd tell you if you weren't going to die anyway. Assassin, deal with the Jedi while I savor the thrill of killing the Chancellor," Claudius ordered. Odette and Ophelia both ignited their lightsabers only for Ophelia to be ordered to back down by Odette due to her abilities with a double-sided lightsaber.

** Darth Maul watched as all** of this happened before him. At first, he couldn't quite tell what he should do considering that his master had clearly ordered him to kill the scientist _and_ the Chancellor. Should he make it easier on himself and have Claudius kill him before springing into action? No, he couldn't afford to let the Jedi get away in the event this fateful night turned up no bounty for him and with that thought, he lunged out of the night.

**Ophelia sensed the dark figure** long before she saw it and reignited her lightsaber to confront it. She slashed and it ducked under her before it ignited two blades on opposite sides of an abnormally long hilt. Gulping in recognition of the weapon, she knew she now had no choice but to fight whoever this was even if she had practically _no _experience fighting whatsoever. "You're very brave but also very stupid to be fighting me," the figure quietly said.

As Odette fought the Dark Jedi and took a little while to notice the figure attacking her Padawan, Ophelia sensed somewhat of a kindred spirit in this mysterious man. The green blades of Odette's lightsaber clashing against the Dark Jedi's lightsaber were a blur to Ophelia who could barely keep her own blue blade on the defense as it was. "I don't want you, I only want your brother, the Chancellor, and your Master," the figure told her. "Why not me?" she asked.

"You will learn why eventually but right now, I cannot tell you because I know no more than the fact that I was ordered not to kill you," the figure answered. It was so strange to hear that from this man that was fighting her and had barely even known her a few seconds. If he didn't want to kill her, why was he even bothering with her? As if he were hearing her ask this question of herself, he answered that it was perhaps because she had attacked him in defense of her brother and the Chancellor.

When she turned around, she was surprised to see that both her brother and the Chancellor were running away from the scene. Claudius was still trying to get a good aim and shoot the Chancellor but people were starting to get in the way. "Ophelia, take this assassin while I take that dark figure fighting you," Odette commanded. "No Master, it's precisely what he _wants_, he just told me!" Ophelia shouted but as usual, Odette would have none of it.

Chancellor Valorum fled as close to the way back to his Office as he could while simultaneously dodging blaster bolts from Claudius' weapon. "You were ever very light on your feet Chancellor and that shall cost you dearly on this night," Claudius said. "There can't possibly someone who asked you to kill me?" Valorum said, confused as could be. "You're right, I lied so that the Jedi were thrown off my trail," Claudius replied.

"But how can you do this to them, with your own sister being the Padawan?" Valorum asked. "I do this for her because I always sought to understand why it is that our parents favored her so much for just her abilities in the Force and not me and my brilliant mind," Claudius answered. "A bit of sibling rivalry, got you," Valorum said. Just then, Claudius opened fire and shot the Chancellor on the shoulder as he told him to shut up. "No more debate, I'm going to kill you now and return your body to the scene so that the Jedi can be framed," he vowed before aiming for the Chancellor's head.

**Ophelia had been knocked down** by the dark figure as he made his way toward Master Odette. She watched helplessly as the warrior and the Dark Jedi made individual efforts to destroy her. "Go Ophelia, it seems they only want me. You were apparently meant to walk a different path from me," Odette ordered.

"Master, I know you don't like argument but you'd best be taking my lightsaber along side yours. Remember how you fought when you did that once? Maybe you can do the same now against these two warriors," Ophelia replied. She threw her lightsaber at her Master after finishing that sentence and decided to pursue her brother, using the element of surprise.

_Why he would kill his highest bidder is beyond me. Did he do something illegal that the Chancellor would arrest him for if he found out? I hate getting dragged into politics even if it's my brother _she told herself. Then she blacked out all thoughts except to stop her brother from killing the Chancellor and framing the Jedi for his crime.

** "Ha, you may have three blades** but we will still kill you," the Dark Jedi told her. _Your cockiness _will _be your undoing if you're not lucky _Lord Maul thought discreetly. "If you mean to mistaken my old age for weakness and lack of coordination, you really should amend your opinion before it's is too late for you," the Jedi replied. For once, Maul found himself agreeing with his target which he had thought highly unlikely before she said that.

"You are full of surprises, old woman. I hope for a good fight before you die," he said to her. "Though a ruthless killer you are, I see there is something very virtuous if not courteous about you," she told him. However, Maul didn't find anything courteous or virtuous about his life as a Sith Lord besides the thrill of the kill but he didn't say that lest he blow his cover. So he kept fighting and as he and the Dark Jedi competed for the prize of her head, he noticed something.

That though her fighting was spectacular, she was drawing on less of her physical strength and more of her Force energy. It meant that in her old age, she had lost a lot of the natural stamina and grace she had when she was younger. He could tell that his Dark Jedi friend had yet to notice that and he knew he didn't have to make any effort to keep it that way. The less experienced assassin showed all the signs of a dead man that Maul had seen before and he knew this wasn't going to be pretty for the assassin if it was going to be for him.

So he simply shifted from the normal tactics of wielding a double-sided lightsaber to incorporating the aggressiveness and finesse of his favorite style: Juyo. While his friend used a nearly carefree performance of Form Two, Makashi, and thus distracting her, Maul continued to strike down her defenses and make her turn more to the offense. He knew if he could make her resort to eliminating the distraction at a time of approaching fatigue, he would be able to take her down regardless of what happened to the cocky bastard next to him. Then she surprised him by deflecting some lightning that the Dark Jedi shot at her and gouging out his left eye.

Maul watched as the other man attempted to take his revenge for that blow and observed how his rage made him sloppy. _Apparently he doesn't know how to draw upon the powers of the Dark Side as I do _Maul said, taking a mental note of his fighting prowess and character. Finally, Maul saw the opportunity he needed to not worry about the Dark Jedi when Odette deactivated one blade on her dual-sided saber, fought with two blades until she had him where she wanted him, and reactivated the other blade so that it plunged in and out of his abdomen. All the while, he had attempted to slice her in two from the head down only to have his blade intercepted by that of Odette's Padawan's wielded by her master.

Maul watched with no pity as the Dark Jedi fell on his back and clutched his wounded stomach with one arm and his lightsaber with the other. Smiling, the Dark Lord of the Sith acquired an idea that he felt would work: giving the Jedi Master a taste of her own skill, with more physical strength than she could give it and more rage fed into the fight. Using the Force, he called the lightsaber of the fallen assassin to him and began to wield it alongside his own. "If you mean to mirror my skills, assassin, know that none that I have faced have ever done that successfully," Odette warned him.

"I'm not anyone you have faced before now am I?" Maul said, practically whisper but one that show a lust for blood. He reignited the orange blade of the near-dead Dark Jedi and charged into the heart of battle with the Jedi Master. Odette had never seen fury like this before and was forced to yield ground, switching from the offensive Form IV Ataru she had been using to her mastery of the defensive III Soresu. However, even that was not enough as Maul managed to send her primary weapon flying out of her hand and forcing her to resort to her Padawan's lightsaber, a traditional blade she had not wielded in thirty years.

"Impressive young man, can I know the name of the man who will defeat and kill me?" Odette asked Maul. Just then, Maul stabbed her with the Dark Jedi's lightsaber in the center of her chest. Time lagged considerably as Odette's wizened face expressed her surprise in Maul's fighting abilities. "Maul… _Darth_ Maul," he whispered before yanked the lightsaber upward and slicing her in two from the chest up.

The blow was enough to kill her instantly and he cast aside the lightsaber of the fallen Dark Jedi. Then he collected the lightsaber of Odette and ran off into the night before anyone could arrive on the scene. In his wake, he made sure to make it look like the Dark Jedi had killed Odette and throw the scent off of him. It was something he made sure to do for the good of the Sith and his Master's dreams as well as his own.

**"It's a shame that being** the special girl, Mommy and Daddy never taught you how to fight," Claudius mocked her as hope seemed lost for her. Ophelia had been fighting her brother for what felt like hours but was merely a period of half a standard hour. Bloodied, bruised, she knew her brother meant to kill her with the superhuman strength he had been born with. "C'mon, conduct the scream and hopefully send me flying into the air like a leaf," Claudius mocked with a smile. And she decided why not considering that without her lightsaber, her options were relatively limited to that or getting herself killed by her brother; it all seemed hopeless for her…


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

The Chancellor had narrowly escaped with his life but now, he was coming back with the aid of Master Mace Windu and Yoda. With both of the great masters at his side, he returned to where Ophelia had drawn Claudius away from him and disarmed the mad scientist. Yoda and Windu had their lightsabers ignited when they arrived upon the scene. But the sad thing was that the madman had long departed, leaving a beaten Ophelia coughing blood, attempting to mend a black eye, and making her best efforts to stand almost simultaneously.  
>Beside her was a note and Yoda told her not to move while Windu plucked her off her belt. "I tried to stop him but without my Master, I couldn't," she said. "Worry you should not, young Padawan. Rest you should until a stretcher we obtain for you," Yoda told her.<p>

"Master, perhaps you best hear or read what this note has to say," Windu said, sounding a tad disappointed. "Please do so," Yoda said. "Jedi Masters of the Republic, by the time you obtain this, I will have departed and made my way back to my hidden base of operations. Please understand that I intended only to kill Odette and Ophelia for personal reasons.  
>"However, the Chancellor's involvement as well as the fact that my plans did not include the business rendezvous forced me to attempt to eliminate him as a witness. Please take note that my original intent was to frame you for the death of the Chancellor and make my assassin look like a hero but that would have been too easy. So I challenge you to follow me on a trail that will take you only one way and to only one place: any that I choose. Do hurry as more than the galaxy may be at stake if you don't," Mace read, concluding by reading that Claudius' signature on it.<p>

"The writing of a madman this is, stopped Claudius must be," Yoda said. "I agree and who better to do it than his sister when she is fit to travel again?" Windu asked him. "You want me to go after my brother and try to stop him on my own?" Ophelia inquired. "If your Master is dead, she cannot see you complete your final Trial," Windu said to her.  
>"I didn't even know I passed the other two," she replied. "Remember when you were challenged to face an old enemy of yours on Temple grounds?" Windu asked her. "That kid Brock was numbskull that had to learn I wouldn't tolerate any crap from him but yes I remember," Ophelia answered. "You passed the Trial of Skill at that point and did you notice anything particularly interesting about your fight with your brother just a few moments ago?" Windu asked, curious to see how she would answer.<p>

"He wanted me to use my sonic scream to destroy him but I knew it wouldn't work," she told him. "You passed the Trial of Insight when you realized what his goal was and refrained from aiding its completion," Windu replied. "An advancing Padawan you are and now, the Trial of Spirit you must complete before ascend to Jedi Knight you can," Yoda said. "I'm willing to do it but first, we have to see if Odette is alive and, regardless, recover my lightsaber from the scene of the crime," Ophelia said before doing her best to stand up.

Chancellor Valorum came beside her and helped her as did Master Windu before they made their way to the scene of Odette's fight with the two assassins. And when they arrived, Yoda's ears sloped down and he seemed to become somewhat sullen. Windu looked as though he was going to lose it and Ophelia couldn't help but slip a tear across her eye. Her Master was dead, sliced in two from the chest up alongside the Dark Jedi that had attempted to take the Chancellor's life.

Though she would never tell the Chancellor or anyone this, she immediately deduced that it was the shadowy figure she had attacked. She called her lightsaber to her belt and made both a verbal and silent promise that when she was better, she would track down her brother and bring him to justice. "Do you understand the immensity of what you've been asked to do? After a few days in the bacta tank, you cannot return from the Temple until your mission is complete," Windu asked her to be answered with a nod.

**Maul couldn't help but feel betrayed** by what had happened. The meeting was too convenient of a setup to have accidentally coincided with his arrival. Plus it was also seemed a little too convenient that his Master had somehow known Jedi Master Odette and her Padawan were going to escort the Chancellor to his meeting with Claudius. Darth Sidious had some questions to answer but Maul was not prepared to see him waiting the apprentice in his headquarters.

"Master Odette is dead?" Sidious asked. "Yes my Master, I bring her lightsaber as proof," Maul answered. He threw the deactivated weapon at his Master, who perfectly caught it with just one hand. "I understand you have questions for me concerning the mission, it's a good thing you kill first and ask questions later," Sidious said to him.

"First question: how did you know Master Odette and her Padawan would be escorting the Chancellor at the precise time of the meeting?" Maul asked. "That was easy enough to come by with my influence and position in the Republic. He somewhat made it an announcement since he and Claudius had been working on a radical advancement in weapons technology," Sidious answered. "Second: what weapon was that?" Maul continued.

"A kind of bomb that if detonated could destroy an entire planet from surface to atmosphere with a single blow. Something that would be very useful in restoring our order to its full potential," Sidious calmly replied to his apprentice. "Third: did you want them both eliminated so that you could gain sole control of the weapon for yourself?" Maul persisted. "Since they were the only two that owned the patent and Valorum made me his replacement in the event of his death, why not?" Sidious answered, maintaining a cool head.

"Last: have you found out what it is that's so intriguing about Odette's Padawan yet?" Maul finished. "Not quite but I believe you will have the chance to discover that for yourself. I still need Claudius dead so you are still assigned to that detail of the mission. However, an added bonus is that Ophelia will be pursuing him the moment she is able to and will hinder your quest.

"If you think you have already found out her secret, feel free to kill her should she get in the way," Sidious explained. "I don't have the answer yet but I do have a clue," Maul said. "And what is that?" Sidious asked, now being the one with the questions.

"Claudius mentioned something about a sonic scream that could be amplified by her Force power, it's not much but it could be a start," Maul answered.

"Good work my apprentice, start with that clue on the side and begin your pursuit of Claudius in the morning," Sidious commanded. "Yes my Master," Maul replied. Then he left for his headquarters to recover his strength from having successfully killed a Jedi Master for the first time in his life. He still felt a bit of the adrenaline still flowing in his veins and sleep was initially difficult so he decided to meditate and calm his mind and body instead.

** Ophelia had never really been good** with the bacta tanks in spite of how well they actually did their work. Something about getting into a tank of water set her minor claustrophobia and her hatred of any greater quantity of water than a glass for drinking. Regardless, she healed relatively quick after two or three days in the bacta tank and was ready to begin her mission. As if knowing exactly when she would be ready for travel, Mace Windu appeared with a chip she recognized as a message recorder.  
>She asked Master Windu to put it through and when he did, she saw the all too familiar figure of her brother.<p>

"Hello sister, by now, you have surely recovered from the shock that my pounding inflicted upon you," he began. Though it was just a thought and the hologram couldn't respond, she asked if he had to throw that out there. "Until you and your master attempted to stop me, my greatest public achievement was at hand but my greatest achievement ever has yet to come," the hologram continued.

Ophelia thought about this carefully but realized her brother would explain. "You see, in public, I worked on the bomb so that the Republic could gain the means of keeping the nasty pirates and other enemies in check. However, my even greater weapon is not the bomb but this," he said, holding up what looked like a blaster. But of course, it was anything but that as he would elaborate to her.

"In secret, I have been working on the possibility of our life forms being just a few of billions but I found more than that. We're all the creations of one branch of history, where our ancestors made a choice and a second where they didn't. In other words, as a result of choices, there are near infinite dimensions that make up reality. And as Heraklion is the place where we humans made our beginnings in the galaxy, I figured I'd steal one of my bombs and find the version of Heraklion that began all reality.

"I shall do this via a detector of Force energy connected in my portal and the stronger it gets, the closer I am to what I call Heraklion Prime. Once I'm there, I will use the bomb I have taken to destroy all reality as well as the Force. If you wish to stop me, come to the Heraklion we know as soon as you can; I'm dying to find out the true extent of your abilities with the guidance of the late Odette forever attached to you," Claudius mocked. His smile was the last thing she saw before his hologram fizzled and disappeared, ending the recording and since it could only be used once, Mace disposed of it.

"Ophelia, I feel very strongly that this may be a trap but I think it's necessary that you go. If you return, you'll have completed the Trials and you can then ascend to Jedi Knight. But do you understand the magnitude of this? If he's not lying, he threatens to destroy the universe and the Force altogether so in order to stop him, you may have to work with a few unlikely allies," Windu asked.

"I fully understand the magnitude of the charge I am accepting. Besides, I won't rest until my brother is brought to justice for his treason, whether it is in this dimension or another," she told him. "Then here's your lightsaber and I have a ship waiting for you whenever you're ready to go to Heraklion," Windu replied. "Thank you Master, you have been most kind," she told him.

"I have faith in your skills as I had faith in Odette's when she was entering the Trials. After all, she was my Padawan just as you were once hers," he said. "I will not disappoint you regardless of what happens to me," she assured him. "You have already done great things Ophelia, my Master Yoda has even said you have the makings of one of the greatest Masters he ever had the pleasure of knowing," Windu said.

She thanked him and asked where the ship was docked so she could begin her mission right away. "Don't you want a cloak to go with your suit?" he asked. Ophelia looked briefly at her suit which was grey and the sleeves were more realistic than those of a normal Jedi robe. "I think with or without the cloak, people will recognize me for a Jedi when they see my lightsaber," she told him.

"Thinking like Odette already, that may come in handy where you could be going," he said with a contented smile. "Thank you again Master, I best be going before my brother destroys all reality," she said. The ship was a Republic cruiser that was colored red which meant that it was on a diplomatic mission to some unidentified planet. Or so most people would assume considering that only the pilot, the passengers, and the supervisors knew where the ship was destined to go. Ophelia took one last look at the Coruscant sky before boarding the ship to Heraklion. It was a beautiful, starry night her Master used to love before she died; the memory of Odette made her stop right there with that thought.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Darth Maul received the recording that his master had given him and had said was directed for him from Claudius. After hearing how the madman had discovered a way to destroy reality, he knew he had to stop him by any means he could. "Which is precisely what I will send you to do," Sidious said as if seeing his very thoughts. "Please do so Master, this is beyond insanity: it's psychopathic," Maul said.

"Kill him or all reality suffers for your failure but be hasty about it. Ophelia seeks to intercept Claudius and bring him to justice through the Republic's system. If you kill him before she is given that chance, you can then return to the wing of our blackness just as quickly and easily," Sidious told him. "My lord, if I may say so, I have a better idea," Maul said.

When Sidious told him he could explain, he did. "Ophelia aims to bring down Claudius as I do. Perhaps it is best that we work together, me keeping my true association a secret and her assuming I'm just another assassin. We could continue that way until Claudius is brought down and then I can kill her if you desire it," he said.

"I never took you for one to think about your mission before you go about it. However, I do like your idea and I do approve of it. Go now on the Sith Infiltrator and intercept her just in case Claudius uses his portal to go to another dimension," commanded the Dark Lord of the Sith. Maul was on board his ship immediately and punched in the coordinates for Heraklion as soon as he was in space, which was only a matter of minutes thanks to his ship's invisibility cloak. It was a race against time that Maul knew had the risk of all reality and the essence of the Force being destroyed if he failed.

**Claudius' laboratory was one of immense** fortune and power that took up most of the useless resources from Heraklion. That is, useless to the Republic but not useless to fueling the electricity of his laboratory and keeping his droids up and running 24/7. It wouldn't matter once he reached "Heraklion Prime", as he had dubbed the oldest dimension of the universe, because then, they would cease to exist and so would everything else. Including himself but it helped to be a nihilist at this time because he would have not had the stomach under any other circumstances.

He tied the belt with his blaster's holster across the waist, holstered his weapon, and threw his coat on before telling his droids to put the laboratory on full alert. "Even if it's my sister, I want no intruders," he told them. "Roger that sir, all laser scanners are online now as the blasters soon will be, there will not be a thing for you to worry about while you're away sir," said EMVFG-1976803, shortened as EMV1 to not confuse him with the hundreds of others he had. Claudius smiled at how droids could continue their mundane tasks without any malcontent in their wiring.

_Nothing ever matters, that's the way of Nihilism _he reminded himself, keeping firm and constant as a great philosopher had once said about a different matter. "Is my portal gun ready?" Claudius asked EMV1. "Ready for use whenever you are," EMV1 answered. Claudius smiled and took the portal gun from his old friend before aiming it at a place on the wall he knew would guide him to his first stop on the list.

It was a version of Heraklion where war was a common occurrence and intelligence of any kind except instinctive was discouraged. And by that, Claudius had made sure to emphasize "_very _discouraged" in his notes of the place. He had even documented a typical conversation between two or more people in several surveillance projects he did in secret, documenting over three million conversations in a standard week and over four billion in a month. And not one of these billions was one that had words like 'uh' never being uttered nor questions like 'you wanna go get laid?' being left out.

They lived in a world where war was a pastime rather than something to fear. He smiled, pitying the fools and their simplicity. It had been all too easy for him to set up the surveys and document the conversations. These morons went to sleep when they had eaten, used the restroom, mated, talked with each other and could think of nothing else to do. The only thing they seemed to do right was maintain a nice steam bathhouse. He had taken a bath in one and the water was almost perfect, apart from the bathhouses of Coruscant.

"Even fools do some things right and it seems as though these ones get their baths right," he thought in his head and out loud. He stepped through the portal and knew that it would take a few moments before he was on the other side. However, he was very sure of his coordinates as he had traversed this way before. As promised, he arrived at the world of the morons after a few moments in between dimensions.

The first time he had gone through the portal, it had made him want to vomit. But as he did more often, his body adjusted to it until this time where he felt nothing. Unfortunately, he had never been to another dimension besides that one and figured that by scanning for the strongest source of Force energy, he could then go over to the next one until he reached Heraklion Prime. With this in mind, he began his work on what he dubbed Blade Heraklion for its use of blades rather than guns whenever war was waged.

**Ophelia knew where her brother's laboratory** was by heart for she had visited him more than once during her missions with Odette. Whenever she needed something analyzed (which more often than not couldn't be analyzed by the droids in the Archives) she would turn to him although she had no love for him. One time, she had brought in a dart that he had likely seen before and he had recognized it for an illegal patent from Mandalore. "The Republic banned this two hundred years ago, making this incredibly rare," he had said.

When she saw the Omega symbol on the top of a little hut in a small village, she knew where it led. She even knew the codes for how to get in when security was at its highest or so she had been led to believe. When she arrived at the hut, she tried to type in a familiar code but was told that it was invalid because the place was on such high security that even Ophelia wasn't allowed in. "Claudius, if you're in there, deactivate the security systems and let me in; we have to talk," Ophelia said.

Turrets came out of a pair of sockets, one on each side of her, and were warming up to gun her down. She ignited her lightsaber and braced herself for some deflecting that she knew she would have to do. Then the biggest insult came when the front door was ray-shielded because she knew she had to destroy the turrets in order to undo the shield. The lasers came at her with the velocity of twenty bolts a second but she was able to deflect all these and even sent some right into the ray-shielded wall before aiming just right and sending a bolt back at each turret and destroying them.

She cut her way through the door and into the laboratory, the tunnel leading down to the chambers of experimentation unopened. As before, she cut her way through, guessing that no code she knew would work for opening it safely and diplomatically. Her blue blade was the only light in the darkness of the tunnel but when she opened, she suddenly came across the line of white lights that ran down the entire elevator shift (the elevator itself consisted of glass and metal bars) which spiraled a few miles under the ground. _How he gets around so quickly even with this is beyond me _she said to herself before pressing a button that would bring her as far down as the elevator was permitted.

She remembered that after the elevator, there was a staircase that led down to yet another door. Behind it was Claudius' laboratory, bathroom and connected sleeping quarters off to the side of it. For all his ability with technology, his bedroom and its extension that was the bathroom were amazingly simple. In his bedroom was merely a bed with a nightstand next to it and a lamp on top, a few holographic books in a relatively large shelf off to the side, and two doors.

One that led into and out of the room and one that led into and out of the bathroom which had a bathtub, a connected shower, and a sink with toothbrush, toothpaste, and shaving kit on its counter. She didn't initially bother with searching his sleeping quarters and bathroom because of their simplicity and instead went to see what she could find in the laboratory. Besides the dozens of droids with vibroblades and blasters that she had to destroy as well as the several laser fences and turrets she had to deactivate, she found only notes on his data screens. At first, she thought they were relatively silly but then paid more attention as she felt they were somehow connected to her mission.

Sure enough, the notes told of a pathway from one dimension of the galaxy to the next. _So my brother solved the problem of how to traverse other dimensions, very impressive _she said to herself. And she had to admit that it was considering that no other scientist in the galaxy had considered the possibilities, let alone worked on the problem for nearly as long as her brother had (a total time of at least eleven years). "You are in a secured zone, please follow me out before I am authorized to use physical force," said a droid that somehow came behind her.

She decapitated the droid in one swift stroke of her lightsaber then sliced off its upper body at the chest along with an arm in another stroke. "That's enough of that little affair, now let's see what information I can immediately gather from these datapads. Maybe I can figure whether or not I can follow him," she thought aloud. "It doesn't take a genius to figure out that you can," said a ghostlike but somewhat familiar voice.

Again, she ignited her lightsaber with the means of confronting whoever was there. "Who are you?" she asked the emptiness. "Forgive my intrusion if it startled but I am a rogue warrior with the same purpose as yourself: bring down Claudius," said a man dressed from head to toe in black. Deactivating her blade, she asked who it was she was being introduced to for the first time.

"I have no real name but if I had one to give, you could call me Maul," the man said to her. "Hmm, strange name but very well, I accept," she said back. But before she could introduce herself, she was surprised to find out he already knew who she was. "Okay then, since you said it doesn't take a genius to find out that he left me a means of following, where would you suspect he did?" she asked him.

"Simple enough to answer: his sleeping quarters or the bathroom as he suspected it would take you a good long while to figure that out," replied Maul. "If you insist we check there, go ahead and start but I'm going to be looking at these files while you check that," Ophelia said. He nodded and went through the door that led into Claudius' private spaces. Funny thing was that while he was away, she sucked dry all the information she could get on different realities of Heraklion.

In one reality, the people of the world have become so stupid that they wage war for no reason at all and intelligence higher than that of an animal was discouraged at any time. This one was dubbed by Claudius as Blade Heraklion for its use of blades rather than blasters. Another one showed humans becoming mutated, meat-eating creatures of the night that have already wiped out all other species of life on the planet and another where the evolutionary ancestors of humans never made the choice to crawl up on land from the waters and thus, left Heraklion to mighty insect creatures. And she learned that Claudius managed to pinpoint where to go next based the amount of Force energy protruding from a certain point on that dimension's Heraklion.

In the case of this one, the strongest point of the Force was in this laboratory but who knows what it could be on any of the others, right? She finished her research just in time for Maul to return and announce a portal was in the bathroom. "Good, let's take it to wherever he aimed it," she said. Quickly, they stepped through and began their pursuit of Dr. Claudius Draco.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Maul had managed to tell no more than his name to Ophelia and decided it was best to let that stay. After all, if he was going to collaborate with her, she couldn't know that he was the one who killed her Master nor the figure she had battled with on that same night. After they went through the portal, they arrived at a place that smelled rancid upon first breath in it and his nose wrinkled from the disgusting scents. It smelled like a mixture of urine, feces, rotten fruits and meats, stale farts, and other things he thought would be best not to think of.

But there was a symbol of a sword on a red background that kept recurring. He never bothered to ask Ophelia what it meant because he had a feeling she would explain herself. Sure enough she did: "This must be Blade Heraklion due to the recurring symbol." He nodded in agreement and immediately pointed out Claudius since he was cleaner than the rest of the people.

"Follow me if you two fools can," he mocked. He then ran in the opposite direction and told a bunch of the disgusting sights around him something that made them come rushing at Maul and Ophelia. "Freeze douche bags!" said one of them. "This is the police force on this planet?" Maul asked Ophelia with a tinge of disappointment in his voice. "Guess so," she replied, equally unimpressed with this revelation.

"Go on after Claudius, I'll handle these poor excuses of men," Maul told her. Though she was initially uncertain of what he meant to do, she nodded and ran after her brother. "Hold on bitch, where you going?" asked one of them. Then she surprised Maul with a minor sonic scream, which sent the man flying to the other side of her, shooting past his partners who were too dumbfounded by that performance to notice her continued flight.

Maul used this time to walk up to the nearest officer and run him through one of his blades. After tossing him aside, the other officers noticed their comrade's death and unsheathed their blades to avenge him. The first man to attack was immediately felled by a stab from Maul's lightsaber before he ignited the other side and only had to play around to kill them. He scalped one man alive, mutilated another, and stabbed three more before the remaining two retreated.

The one who had been tossed aside revived after that and insisted on attacking Maul if he couldn't get at Ophelia. Maul smiled, congratulating the man's bravery before approaching him with murderous and vicious intent. "What the hell are you saying dude? Are you some kind of fag?" the idiot officer asked.

Angered by the insult and having no parting words for him, Maul grasped his throat in a Force choke and crushed his already frail throat until he had drawn his last breath of life. Nobody dared to oppose him after seeing an entire squad of officers wiped out with ease but did talk about him behind his back. He had to quickly catch up with Ophelia but luckily, it wasn't hard finding her or her brother. In fact, it was almost too easy since the people cleared out of his way and brought Ophelia into his line of sight for him.

** Claudius knew that now would be** a good time to use his blaster to distract Ophelia long enough to activate a smoke bomb in his pocket. It was the only way to be sure that he could escape to a far enough distance to make himself difficult to catch up with. _Why should I make it easy for her to catch me when I have a universe to destroy _he reminded himself. Ultimately, the blaster did its trick in slowing her down and he unleashed the smoke bomb.

While she was distracted with it, he fled to the side and disappeared into an alley. When he came to a dead end, he climbed up to the rooftops and continued his flight until he was far enough away to give her a trail but not make himself easy to catch either. After losing the trail, he walked into the home of a couple that looked inbred rather than human and their seven children were no prettier in appearance. "Uh, what the fuck are you doing in my house?" asked the man who was also grotesquely fat and was seated on a chair that looked like it was broken beyond all repair.

"Taking over residence for right now," Claudius replied. Then he scored a fatal shot between the eyes with his blaster before taking out the wife and all seven of the children without remorse or pity for any of them. "Nothing personal, just can't have any hindrance to my plans for this place," he said to the dead man. Since it was nighttime now (it had been that way on the previous Heraklion as well) he figured it was best to rest and let Ophelia and the dark figure continue their pursuit if they wished.

_I think I'm going to enjoy my stay while I'm waiting for them. Besides, what difference does it make when I have the ability to trace the greatest amount of Force energy on this forsaken planet before transferring myself to another dimension and they do not _he said to himself. He activated his portal gun and read the scanners for where he had to go next. As long as there was Force energy, he didn't need anything but this gun to scan the planet.

Luckily, though weak, he managed to pick up a signal of Force energy that was not too far from his immediate area. In fact, it was about three or four miles before he reached it and would then go to where it was strongest before creating a portal to his next destination. Sure he could go anywhere, regardless of Force energy, but it was best to use it anyway so as not to wind up in the heart of a star in some unknown region in an unknown dimension. _I guess perhaps I can settle for the night and why not, I left them the clue they'll need to know I'm here then be able to follow me in the morning _he asked himself, concluding his night by commenting that it was very good.

** "Damn, lost him!" Ophelia cursed.** Biting her tongue to hold her temper, she couldn't believe that her brother, a mere mortal compared to her, could so easily slip from her grasp. "It's not your fault, it happens even to the best of us," Maul said. "But _I _of all people in the Order was assigned to capture my brother, I had that chance and I let it slip away," she said.

Maul had placed a hand on her shoulder as a reassurance that she could make mistakes, something he had never done before nor had known to have had done to him by his master. He watched as she eased herself into the bed he had found her then decided to meditate for a couple hours before continuing the pursuit of her brother. Meditation was always easier in times like these where the trail of his quarry was somewhat blurred by a lack of clues. And why not, sometimes it enlightened his way to victory.

However, he did not intend to use this meditation to enlighten himself to anything. Instead, he intended to use this session to refresh himself more than sleep ever could then see if he could find a lead on his target. And why not? He could probably detect a lead much better than Ophelia herself could.

If he knew mad scientists well enough from his previous mission, they always left a clue in the most obvious of places. Ones where the Jedi would overlook and be entirely misled by what they thought were clues but were not. _Perhaps he left a small flag of the Heraklion we knew or something that could only have come from our dimension in a nearby facility _Maul told himself. Maul meditated on that resolve for two and a half hours then set out to find out where Claudius could have left such an important clue.

Shockingly, it didn't take him that long to recognize something he knew was from his own dimension rather than this one. It was a probe droid that looked not too different from the type he used in his normal missions. In fact, were it not for the color and build of it, he would have said it was the same type but he knew the purpose it had. It was to stand guard and let Claudius know when either Maul or Ophelia was onto his tail again and would return to Claudius if it spotted him.

And Maul would have made sure to somehow provoke it and make it go back to Claudius had some idiot not told asked him for money. "Sorry but I have none," Maul told him. "Sure you do, why else would you be wearing those fag clothes?" asked the homeless beggar. Disgusted by that attitude, Maul immediately ran him through his lightsaber and killed him almost instantly.

The probe droid noticed this and immediately flew off to return to its master. Maul followed, knowing it would lead him to Claudius' hideout but put enough distance between it and himself that when Claudius would surely try to find him, he couldn't even with his glasses on. He followed the probe and sure enough, he found it go into a little house that looked more like a hut than a house. Claudius stepped out and looked around before deactivating the probe and going back inside the house.

Maul then retraced his steps and immediately woke up Ophelia, who had been knocked out for nearly five hours. "Come on, I found where your brother is and we need to track him down fast," Maul told her. Ophelia was quick to respond by buckling her lightsaber, throwing the blanket aside, and following Maul down the path he had just barely traversed with the probe droid. If they were to have any hope of capturing her brother quickly, they would have to act quickly any time they knew he was only a few minutes away from their position.

** Claudius knew Maul would bring** the pursuit back to him now that the probe had returned to him. Quickly, he threw on his coat, stashed the deactivated droid in a bag he had bought, and began to flee for where he had located the greatest concentration of Force energy. The blaster and its holster were already attached to the belt on his pants so it was just merely that he had to run now. He activated the portal gun and made sure to keep himself on the right path so he could reach the concentrated energy more easily and more efficiently.

There were a couple of dead ends and these had unfortunately stalled him long enough for Ophelia and the dark figure to make visual contact with him. _Damn, now they're onto me _he thought. He ran for dear life, following the trail that his scanner picked up to the best of his ability until at last, he arrived at a point where the beeping of the scanner paused and produced an eerie sound from one beep being prolonged. _Excellent, this is the spot now let's open up a portal to the next dimension on my list _he said to himself.

That wasn't the hard part now that he had his target locked but the hardest part did come when Ophelia and Maul were almost on his toes. So he decided to create another opening for the portal, one that was farther away from him than the one he was going to. Only problem was that he had only a few minutes to do that from the other side. Luckily he had a quicker and easier solution: create another portal nearby and make the one he was going through open for so little time that they would have no choice but to use the other one.

Yes they would land in the same dimension but no, they would not be right on his tail when they went through. In fact, they would be completely thrown off for at least long enough for him to make it difficult for them to find him again. It was a plan that had no chance of failure so he ignited another portal before entering the one he was already at. _They fared well against this world of idiotic would-be warriors, let's see how they fare against insects so large that some of the largest life forms in our own dimension would be amazed _he thought.

**Ophelia and her friend Maul** arrived in time to see one portal close but another one stay. "I suspect there is a reason to that," Maul said. "No kidding: he's hoping to throw us off his trail at least for the moment," she replied quickly. Then she traveled through the portal that was available without even a second thought as to where they could wind up. Sighing, Maul admitted that he was going to have to get used to that impulsiveness if he was going to work with her then followed her through the portal with much more reluctance than he would have had before.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

In Claudius' opinion, there was no dimension more fascinating than this one that he had just arrived at. He dubbed it Lightning Heraklion for its frequent lightning storms but he knew who it belonged to: the descendants of the insects that had once lived side by side with the evolutionary ancestors of human beings. Above him, dragonflies the size of Gorogs flew overhead and spiders the size of Rancors skittered past him in their daily business of finding food. The good thing was that he was so small that he was not noticed by the spiders or dragonflies but there were other creatures that could potentially make a meal out of him if he wasn't careful.

There were gigantic centipedes that normally made prey out of the local millipedes but were willing to go for something that supplemented their diet, including a human that they had never seen before. Luckily, he knew that his blaster and the lightsabers of his pursuers would make short work of any of them were they on their guard. What was even better about that was that they were willing to leave him alone once they learned about his blasters capability to hurt them. These were clearly sentient creatures (to what extent he knew not though he could already determine it was minimal) that were not to be trifled with in their proper environments.

He moved down to a nearby inland lake and decided it would be best to settle for the night. After all, the best traveling was done in the day when the vision of the spiders and dragonflies were blurred by the lights. The sun on this Heraklion was fierce, even if the trees were approximately fifty meters around and over two hundred meters tall with hundreds of branches that seemed to nearly block the light. Thankfully, there were plenty of openings where only those willing to brave being caught by the dragonflies ventured but he suspected that being so tiny, they would be completely oblivious to him.

** Ophelia and Maul arrived on the portal** that had been left in Claudius' wake and Ophelia was quick to worry about where they were. "This is where our evolutionary ancestors were not brave enough to crawl up on land, thus leading to the complete prevention of our rise," she said. "What does it mean to you if you exist in another dimension?" Maul asked her. "These creatures are hellishly bigger than the evolutionary ancestors and more fearsome in design and appetite," she answered.

"For a Jedi, you seem to know much in the ways of science," Maul said, curious. "My father used to educate me before he died in an invasion of our homeworld," Ophelia replied cautiously. She added that she had just been a little kid and didn't know her father too well nor even had a mother as her mother had died giving birth to her. "According to the Council, Claudius brought me here for training but now, I'm starting to think they held something from me," she explained.

"Happens even to the best of us," Maul assured her. "You're not much for words compared to me, are you?" Ophelia asked. "I prefer to let my lightsaber speak for me or else I don't speak at all except to insure that I have received a command," Maul answered. He feared she was onto him but those fears were immediately quelled by what she said next.  
>"I knew a man like that. Though he didn't quite have your dark aura, he did have that same nature," she said. Maul sighed a mental sigh of relief and insisted aloud that they press on to find Claudius. "Should be easy considering that besides you and me, he's the only creature on this planet with two feet and boots," she said.<p>

_If it's so easy then get started immediately_ Maul thought but did not say. He followed her as she made her routes and looked for details that may hint at his presence such as footprints, torn plants, broke branches, but Maul found much more quickly that the latter two details would be impossible to go by since the millipedes and centipedes trampled them every day. When Ophelia decided she was unable to go any further in the search for her brother (for that day) Maul took over and continued the search while she rested. Using some tricks he had learned while on a few of his missions back home, Maul was able to read Claudius' movements as the scientist made bigger dents into the earth than even the spiders that were hundreds of times more massive than the three of them combined.

He led Ophelia through the trail and even taught her how to read footsteps into the soft mud. "Don't worry, evolution has already doomed us never to be here so leave all the footprints you like while we pursue him," Maul said. She smiled at that and continued to follow him until she could see the footprints of her brother. It took at least half a day (by the standard time of their dimension) but they managed to bring him into visual contact again.

"Hello sister, how are you today?" Claudius mocked. "This ends now Claudius, whether you like it or not," Ophelia said. Maul saw a trap before she did when Claudius merely smiled at them and calmly replied that she was right. "It does end but only one way if at all: my death by your hands," Claudius added with much enthusiasm.

Then he shot at a few spots that seemed random but actually were parts of a spider's territory. Angry, the arachnid arose from its den and immediately saw Maul and Ophelia in front of it. Out of instinct, it lunged for the two warriors and Claudius watched as it attacked his sister and her friend, intent on driving them off or making a meal out of the two of them. Maul turned to Ophelia and asked if she had any great ideas about how to get rid of the spider.

"Yeah one: we combine our powers and throw it into that lake to our left. If I know my bugs well enough, she'll die when we throw her in there," she said. "Good idea but there's one problem: how to lure her over there," Maul replied. "Run out to the lake then dodge her attack when starts to come at you with the stinger," Ophelia shouted.

Maul did as instructed and waited until the spider noticed him by the lake. At Ophelia's command, he used the Force to bring the spider into the air and with her aid, he pushed it into the lake. The water was deep enough to engulf the spider that soon drowned from her immersion into the water. "Good, now where is Claudius?" Maul asked her.

** Claudius saw their victory** and could not believe what he had seen them do. He recognized that they had seen him and at first, was too surprised to move. It was only that they were almost onto him that he managed to run for the cave that gave off the most Force energy on this planet. Behind him, Maul and Ophelia were barely keeping up and he knew he had to be quick about creating the portal to the next dimension.

He tried his best to slow them down somewhat by shooting at each of them randomly. However, each bolt of energy was deflected by their lightsabers until he was near the end of the dark cave. Quickly, he pulled out the portal gun and shot a round into the wall with the full knowledge of where this one would lead. He was just glad when he managed to get out of this dimension before getting caught by Ophelia or her dark friend.

** Breaking into a maximum-security facility** was no easy task. Nor was the planning behind breaking into this facility for that matter. "Dante, how much longer before we find what we need to help the Chancellor?" asked his companion who lagged behind. "Not much longer my friend, we just have to make sure that the Jedi don't see us," he replied.

"I thought the silent alarm had been tripped off the moment we entered. If that's the case, I wonder why the Jedi haven't attacked us yet," the companion inquired. "Maybe they're just waiting to see what we'll do while in here," he agreed. "Hey, I got dibs!" the companion cheered enthusiastically.

Quickly, he cut down the door with his lightsaber and walked through the result of his entrance. "There's the chip we're looking for," the companion said. "Good job Alec, you've done a good service in the name of freeing the Republic from the tyrannical hand of the Jedi," the first man proudly announced. "What does that do?" his companion asked.

"It gives Republic soldiers the okay to execute their Jedi commanders once plugged into the mainframe database at the Chancellor's office. If we can get out of here now, we'll have life-and-death power over those evil bastards," Dante explained. Then Alec turned his head as the alarms starting blasting off furiously. Both of them ran out just in time to see some red and purple blades activate in the distance.

"The Jedi are onto us now!" Alec shouted. "No shit, keep up with me and we'll both live to carry out the promise our ancestors from the Old Order promised to fulfill," Dante ordered. With his saberstaff in hand and Alec beside him, Dante made his way toward the exit of the Jedi Temple. However, he immediately saw the distance between him and some of the Jedi Knights closing rapidly.

"Alec, take the chip and get the hell out of here," Dante told him. "What about you?" Alec asked him. "I will cover your escape, just move it!" Dante answered. "Ah Dante, Master Inquisitor of the Ancient Ways, we meet at last," said the first figure in front of him. "Jedi Lord Cadmus, I've heard of you and your cruel methods of punishing rebels," Dante replied to the leader of the group.  
>"Cruel perhaps but necessary to teach punks like you that the Jedi are the way and will remain so for another thousand years at least," Cadmus replied before lunging at Dante with his lightsaber. Slowly, Dante rose up his staff, gathered his Force energy and life force into a single explosive power then tapped the cold, marble floor with the butt of his staff. Cadmus and at least twelve other Lords did not survive the blast that ensued as Dante's body diminished and his robes burned to ash. Besides the thirteen Lords, Dante also managed to kill at least another dozen Blademasters and nearly thirty Acolytes.<p>

Alec watched it all happen from afar and vowed to his friend that his sacrifice would not be in vain. He was lucky to get out of the Jedi Temple but he wondered how long it would be before the Overlord started sending Acolytes and Blademasters in search of him. How long would he have before the Overlord would spread his Order to the farthest stars just to find him? He was the last practitioner of the Ancient Ways and right now, all he could do was reach the hideout his friend had established long ago.

** When Claudius arrived to the next dimension,** all he saw and heard was chaos. "Move out of the way people, we're looking for a practitioner of the Ancient Ways! You there, with the glasses and the coat, have you seen anyone of this description?" asked one of the warriors in the chaos who looked like a Jedi and had spotted Claudius. He was given a hologram picture of the man they were looking for and he paused, wondering how to respond.

Then he figured that perhaps giving them what they may or may not want was the best option. "No I have not seen anyone of that description, I'm new here and I was woken up by the racket down here," he lied. "He looks honest enough, let's go on to others who might be a little more useful," one of them said. When they left, Claudius had to admit he found this new dimension amusing as he had managed to extract enough information to know that here, the Jedi were wielders of the Dark Side and the Philosophers (followers of long-dead ways like the Sith of his dimension) were the wielders of the Light. I may not be able to get out of here for a while but I actually kind of like this. Besides, when your quest is to destroy all reality, why rush he asked himself before blending with the black night.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

When Ophelia and Maul arrived in the new dimension Claudius had taken them to, they were confused as could be. "This looks like Coruscant, almost exactly," Ophelia exclaimed in surprise. While she was in a stupor, Maul immediately began making a silent examination of their whereabouts. _The similarities are remarkable but of course, there are differences to be noted _he told himself.

He immediately observed that the symbol on the police droids were different from what he had seen back home. However, because the Jedi never had use for such droids back home, he guessed that the Republic (or whatever this place's government was called) employed them. Plus, he also noticed that the people who looked like Jedi threatened the droids and even activated red lightsabers like the one he carried on his belt. _The Dark Side is dominant here and the Jedi are wielders of it, I may be at home here _Maul thought as Ophelia was still in her stupor.

"Maul, you are not helping us any! Actually do something useful besides just stare at everything," she said. "I've already made some useful observations, care to know them?" Maul asked. "I'm listening," she sighed.

"Firstly: take a look at the police droids, particularly the symbols on their shoulders," Maul began. Ophelia looked and seemed surprised that there was a difference between the symbol of the Republic of their dimension and the symbol presented here. "Secondly: look at the warriors wielding lightsabers, they may look like Jedi but what's one difference you can spot immediately?" Maul asked. "Their aura presents not that of Jedi we know but of users of the Dark Side, similar to yours but still different," Ophelia answered.

"Very good, now watch what happens when they ignite their lightsabers at the droids," Maul said. Ophelia did and saw red or purple blades, something that did not pass her without shocking her to her core. "Like the Sith Yoda would endlessly babble about when we were younglings," Ophelia said. _It's amazing the old stinker even remembers anything about the Sith after more than eight hundred years _Maul told himself, Ophelia's comment amusing him.

"I think we need to get our asses moving before they think we're up to something and investigate us," Maul said aloud. "Too late," Ophelia replied. Sure enough, two "Jedi" were coming up Maul's side and another was coming up from Ophelia's side of the street. The one on her end called them road hogs and asked why they were holding up the traffic.

Though Maul was not the diplomatic type, he did want to keep quiet this time but unfortunately, Ophelia blew it. "What traffic? I don't see much of anything on this section of the city," she asked. _Damn, no we are in trouble _Maul thought.

"Real smart-alack aren't you?" the one on her side asked. He added to his friends that he thought it was time for both of them to have a talk with one of the Lords in the Temple. "You seem like the type who might know the whereabouts of the missing Philosopher anyway," he said. "Excuse my friend, we barely arrived here from afar and have no idea what you're talking about," Maul said, trying to better the situation.

"Bullshit, just hand your weapons over to my boys here and we'll be underway for a safe and painless visit to the Temple," the commander ordered. "Now that's something I don't think we'll do. Besides, it isn't your choice to make and I recommend leaving us be if you value your lives," Maul warned. "Tough guy huh, well let's see how long you last when I have boys sick you," the commander replied before snapping his fingers, the signal for them to attack.

Maul ignited his double-sided lightsaber quickly and held his own relatively well, even killing the duo that tried to be his undoing. "Not bad, how's your friend?" the commander asked before igniting a blade of his own. Quickly, she sliced the hilt of his lightsaber in half and held him at blade-point. "Fine enough without assholes like you coming to look," Ophelia replied.

Before he could react, Maul immediately saw a trap as he watched the commander Force push her into a pile of crates before attempting his escape. "Not so fast, you and I have unfinished business," Maul told him. The commanding officer immediately sent a barrage of Force lightning upon him but Maul merely stood there, absorbing it into his body. "Sorry to scare you but I'm immune to Force lightning," he mocked with an evil smile.

Then he absorbed all the Force lightning in his body and reflected it back at his enemy, killing him almost instantaneously and without mercy. Ophelia was just barely returning from her state of surprise and immediately guessed that Maul had killed the remaining Jedi. "You guessed correctly for once now we just need to get out of here," he said. "Hey, you two look like you could use my help, come!" someone said to them from nowhere.

"Who are you?" Ophelia asked. "Someone who can help you get accustomed to your surroundings, I can tell you're not even from this galaxy, let alone here," the man told them. Maul followed the voice until he found a man dressed in robes that matched the holographic picture they had seen earlier. "Wait, you're the one they want; how do we know to trust you?" Ophelia asked.

Maul smacked her back and asked her in a whisper if she had any better ideas. "For someone that doesn't talk much, your friend has a point now let's go!" the man ushered. Ophelia and Maul followed until they reached a place that had all sorts of devices they had never seen and a surprisingly huge number of statues in its vicinity. When the man closed the door behind them, Maul knew they were safe although Ophelia wasn't so quick to be so sure.

"Sorry to spoil the fun for you like that but had you stayed there, the cavalry would have been called in from the Temple," the man said politely. "No apologies, just tell us who you are and what the hell is going on here," Ophelia said, blunt but direct. Maul made a slight snarl of irritation but she chose to ignore this. "It's all right friend, my name is Alec and I am part of a secret group that is publicly known as the Philosophers but has more recently begun to adopt The Avengers as its name because we're avenging the wrongs committed to common people every day," the man explained.

Maul and Ophelia were silent as he explained that for thousands of years, the Jedi and the Philosophers had been at war with each other. However, the Philosophers suffered a staggering defeat one thousand years ago that only left a single survivor who fled for her life. "Since then, anyone who has been willing to study the ways of the Philosophers has had to sacrifice everything they love for the cause. It was the only way to keep the Order and those associated with it safe from the Jedi," he continued.

Ophelia shook her head in disbelief while Maul took it to a deeper level. He doubted even Claudius knew what he had dragged them into or if the man was even alive any longer. If he was, it certainly was a miracle of chance but how long would that remain? How long did _they _have before these Jedi found them again and tried to kill them once more?

"My friend and former Master, the late Dante, took me to the Temple in the hopes that we would be able to find something to kill them. Fortunately, in spite of his sacrifice, we did indeed," Alec said. Then he extracted a chip from in his sleeve and explained its purpose. "A small chip with that much command over the armies of this world… most impressive," Maul noted.

"I just need to get it to the Chancellor and then it's over for the Overlord and his evil rule," Alec said. Then he looked away as though he were disappointed that he hadn't done that sooner. "And how come you haven't done this yet?" Ophelia asked. "Because we just barely got the chip a few hours ago; you walked into the confusion Dante's sacrifice caused," Alec answered.

"Do you have spare rooms to accommodate us at least until tomorrow morning? Forgive the interjection but there's nothing more we can do for tonight and if we hope to reach the Chancellor, we'd best be at full strength tomorrow," Maul asked. "Oh yes, I almost forgot that Dante always left a huge number of spare rooms for anyone who joins us and wishes to hide out here," Alec answered. Alec guided them to separate rooms and Ophelia unpacked what she had whilst Darth Maul simply washed his robe and cleaned the handle of his lightsaber from the insect blood during their adventures in the previous dimension.

When Alec returned, he invited them to dinner and Maul willingly accepted the offer though he himself didn't see the need for food. Ophelia recognized the cuisines he laid out as imports from her homeworld and wondered if they tasted the same as she remembered. To her surprise and eternal delight, they did. Maul savored each bite, using the Force to process each nutrient to every cell of his body, a form of bodily repair he had learned while chasing after a minor Senator that Sidious wanted eliminated on the watery planet Manaan.

Ophelia watched him and wondered where the hell he learned those tricks from, still unaware that he was an apprentice to a Sith Lord back in their dimension. Maul didn't know how long he could keep up that deception because in spite of the fact that they had few moments to talk that didn't concern the mission, he felt a strange attraction to her. It wouldn't be so bad if the feelings weren't mutual but unfortunately, they were. Alec made no comment but assumed nothing about his newly acquired guests while he ate his food and thanked Ophelia and Maul for keeping him company.

"And thanks for telling me about your dimension Ophelia, it's so incredible to think that there is something like that where the Jedi are not tyrannical terrorists but benevolent protectors of the peace," he told her. "The Republic has known a thousand years of peace, following the defeat of our Sith enemies on the planet of Ruusan. For the first few centuries, we feared the Sith would return to take their revenge but after about three hundred years after Ruusan (maybe more) we relaxed and settled into an era of peace that had already lasted a long time by then. Seeing as how the Jedi are tyrants here, I can understand why you find what I have to say difficult to comprehend," Ophelia agreed.

"But maybe you two are the key to my victory and the return of justice to this world," Alec said. _Ophelia maybe but restoring peace to a galaxy was never my destiny _Maul said to himself. "Maul, don't look so glum! His people need our help whether you like it or not," Ophelia said.

"Don't call me glum, every minute we waste here is a minute Claudius uses to get closer to Heraklion Prime and the destruction of the Force and of all reality," Maul hissed. "Claudius? Heraklion Prime? What in the name of the Great Ones is this all about?" Alec inquired, confused.

With great reluctance, Ophelia explained why they were here and explained Claudius' intent on the universe in all its dimensions. "I won't stall you anymore than I have, feel free to leave in the morning if you choose thought I truly would have appreciated your help in this," Alec said with a heavy heart. "We're staying, knowing my brother Claudius, he can't move around in this chaos anymore than we can," she assured him. "Thank you, all I need done is for someone to download the program as I am terrible at technology and someone who can lead the assault on the temple here on Coruscant," Alec replied.

"I'll handle that one. I have a hunch that my dark aura will allow me to sneak any and all troops deep enough into the Temple to launch a full-scale assault that not even the Overlord would be ready for," Maul said. "That is true, you may not be a Jedi of this dimension but your dark power would fool even the Overlord all the same. You are truly a genius considering you don't talk too much," Alec told him. "I try to let my actions speak for me more than my tongue if I can help it," Maul replied. They enthusiastically agreed to the plans of Maul attacking the temple, Ophelia downloading the chip into the main frame, and Alec confronting the Overlord.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

"Even with a chip like that, you'll never kill all the Jedi unless you give the soldiers an ample opportunity to do so," Ophelia told Alec. "I have rebel armies stationed across every planet in the entire galaxy that the Jedi control plus a few more. Once I give the signal, galaxy-wide war will begin and knowing the Overlord, he'll want to ensure control over as many of his worlds as possible. So he'll assign one Jedi warrior to one planet and when that happens, I'll have you put the chip into the main frame thus undoing his Order," Alec explained calmly.

"And what if he's too powerful for you to face alone?" she asked him. "As much as I appreciate your offer, it won't mean anything after you're gone unless I am the one to take him down here and now," Alec answered. "Suit yourself, truthfully, I wouldn't have minded fighting him for a change from the giant insects Maul and I killed before we came here," Ophelia said. "You can help me reach the point of dueling with him if you wish but you cannot interfere with the duel itself and neither can Maul," Alec assured.

"I will do that and so will Maul from his end of the bargain. He wasn't kidding when he said he'd lead the attack on the Temple and thus far, it seems he's right considering that he hasn't sounded off any major alarms yet," Ophelia said. "The silent alarm could have been tripped but the Jedi rely more on their skills in the Force than on technology," Alec told her. "I don't know him as well as I would like but I know he's not going to underestimate their abilities in the Force; he's done less underestimating than I have and it's in my code of honor to not do that," she said back.

"Sometimes some people do some things better when not obligated to do so than we are when it's our obligation to do as good as them," Alec said. "Sad thing is that's been the truth for the last few days or more," Ophelia agreed. "How long have you been pursuing this Claudius figure you want?" Alec politely asked. "On our time plane, we have been pursuing him for maybe a week to a week and three days but I don't know how it is on your plane though I do feel like it's not too far off from our own," Ophelia answered.

Alec nodded and asked if he could guide her down to the Chancellor's office. "That would be a nice change from hiding in the slums of this place," she said. Alec took her hand and away they went to begin the freedom of Alec's fellow men and women. "Do I signal the rebels to attack from the main frame in the Chancellor's office as well?" Ophelia asked him.

"I did that while you and Maul slept last night. The Chancellor knew what it was and so did the Overlord since I made sure both men heard the code," Alec answered. "But why the Overlord and not just the Chancellor or even just us for that matter?" Ophelia asked. "Simple: he'll be so focused on the war that he won't notice when we have Republic troops turn on him via the code in that chip you carry," Alec answered.

"He's a guy for the direct approach and will fall into a well placed loop easy, won't he?" Ophelia asked. "Yes and for a man that's a thousand years old, that is a phenomenal show of arrogance or stupidity (or both) on his part," Alec agreed. "So Maul will be making his way to the Temple right about now if all has gone to plan and we should be hearing the war on the News really soon," Ophelia stated. Alec nodded and the two of them began to proceed towards a detour that would lead almost all the way to the Chancellor's office from the ground floor up.

**The captain Maul shared** his battalion with knew what the signal would be when Alec was ready to destroy the Jedi Order. But even so, Maul wondered if this man or a whole many others would survive past this raid on the Temple. He would love the thrill of killing Jedi at last but these were not the Jedi he was trained to fight nor was his cause the cause he had been so accustomed to hearing his master blabber endlessly. Still, he felt as if for once in his life, he could freely dispense the power of the Dark Side within himself and he wondered if that was the real purpose of the torturous training he had endured for as long as he could remember anything.

He would not kill the Overlord himself but he knew that if Alec needed his help, it would be best to step in even if the man said otherwise. It would be very assuring that he had some humanity to Ophelia who realized her feelings for him and his for her. Why do I feel this way and why was I never trained to handle this he asked himself during the night. He knew it wasn't lust since he had never been afraid to rape a woman while on the job whenever it was lust but he was afraid to even touch this woman for fear his touch would hurt her or be loathsome to her.

He quickly put it aside with a thought he would recite to himself every time he faced fear. Fear… fear attracts the fearful. The strong, the weak, the innocent, the corrupt. Fear… fear is my ally he told himself before he received the signal to begin his end of operations in this altered planet.

** Ophelia and Alec had made** it into the Chancellor's office and were fortunate to have found no one there. In fact, according to Alec, the Chancellor had left a whole standard hour before to grab a bite to eat with her three children and husband. "Though she has to bend over for the Overlord's thrusting, she still has a family to tend to," Alec said. "I understand as I was once part of one myself," Ophelia replied.

She preferred not to remember that as she typed the codes Alec gave her to put into the main frame. Once she had, she was asked if she wanted to approve of the signal being sent and she let Alec do that. He was glad that she did since he not only approved it but orated a message into it as it traveled across communication lines. "For a thousand years, the Jedi Overlord has ruled through fear and hatred, making sure that everyone (even the Chancellor) knew his desire to rule the galaxy with an iron fist after he defeated the Philosophers in the last war," he began.

Ophelia watched as he continued to inspire hope into the common people. "My people, you and I are more united because of this in one way: we're tired of bowing before the Overlord, tired of watching as our elected officials bend over for him, we are tired of having to submit to his demands, and we have had enough. I have already sent this code that will kill up to eighty percent or more of his Order within a week and have challenged him to a duel in person but it is up to you to finish what me and my ancestors started a thousand years before," he continued. Ophelia smiled and gave him credit for his oration to the peoples of the galaxy they both resided in.

"My master never thought about this and even forbid that I do this but I was compelled to do it anyway because so much planning would not be in vain if I did it. So I hope Dante can forgive me for what I have done and I hope I can join him in the Netherworld of the Force should I die," he said. "I have a feeling he already has," Ophelia assured him. "The beacon and the deaths of the Jedi will be sure to call the attention of the Overlord at any moment, I want you out of here before he arrives," Alec said.

"I'm not leaving you here to almost certain death by his blade," Ophelia snapped. "If it's going to mean anything after you're gone, I have to be the one to face him," Alec replied. Deep down, she knew he was right and she needed to get back on the trail of Claudius before he had a chance to lose her and Maul entirely. "Find your brother and stop him from destroying all reality, May the Force be with you on that journey," Alec said.

"Thanks, it is something we have needed more and more as this journey has continued to unfold," Ophelia told him. Alec smiled and watched her leave the Office for the first and last time that she would be in this version of the galaxy. "So sweet those women, especially to a guy like you, slave of the Philosophers," said a new, ominous voice with a somewhat metallic tone. "It's about time you came out of that massive cave of yours to face your greatest of foes," Alec replied.

"Pretty brave for a kid who's never fought me before," the Overlord mocked enthusiastically. "Maybe I haven't but I know of ancestors of mine who did," Alec calmly told him. "Oh yeah, I remember now, there was one who looked just like you but unfortunately, he was killed too quickly," the Overlord continued. Then Alec turned and saw the face of his enemy to be surprised at how well-conditioned the Overlord was.

He was a human male with black bulbs for eyes, sharp dagger-like teeth, huge bulging muscles, and was less than a seventh of a meter taller than Alec. His robe was black with grey armor plates and a red cape running from the shoulders to the back of the knees. "Ready to die in battle as your ancestors did, a thousand years ago?" the Overlord asked. "Who knows what will happen to me or you except that one of us will leave alive and victorious and the other will be either captured or killed," Alec answered.

Alec ignited his lightsaber as did the Overlord whose blade hummed to life for the first time in possibly a thousand years, its red blade so pale red it would seem as though its lust for blood would give back its old blood-red color. "This blade needs your blood in order for its thirst to finally be quenched," the Overlord smiled wickedly. "And this blade needs a chance to try and undo your evil," Alec replied. The Overlord smiling and Alec accepting whatever fate lied before him, the two began their battle.

** _Regardless of what happens_**_ to the Overlord, I cannot stay here any longer_ Claudius thought. Off the corner of his eye, he spied Maul already resuming the search for him and decided to give the dark warrior a clue to him. No, better to deliver a message in person than to leave a pathetic clue and hope the team never found the portal to the next dimension. After all, they managed to keep on his trail this long and it was best to show his deepest respect.

And it was a good thing he chose to reveal himself to the silent killer as opposed to the loud Jedi Knight. "I will be sure to let Ophelia know of your visit and the rendezvous you wish to make to continue our little chase," Maul assured him. "Excellent and be sure to ask her to tell you why you hunt for me as you do now," Claudius told him. "What do you mean by that?" Maul asked.

"You will see when you see her reaction to that small request for knowledge," Claudius answered. And just like that, the scientist had become the pursued fugitive once more and Maul resumed his role as one of his two pursuers. His pistol and portal device were ready along with something from his past he didn't anticipate bringing. In fact, he had been very confident he had left it but then his sleeve did contain a pouch where it could have been there without him knowing the whole time.

It was a dagger from his past life as Prince and Heir to the Draco Throne on the planet Nyx. Suddenly, he remembered all of the civil war and strife that the monarchies caused through their lusts for power and domination of the planet. It was dissidence between the crowns that Claudius helped to end. Unfortunately, it was also that same dissidence that cost him his father, mother, grandparents, uncles, aunts, and many cousins.

**Maul knew it was going** to be nowhere near as difficult to relay Claudius' request as it would be for Ophelia to honestly answer it. That's what hurt him all the more about doing this but he knew he had to do it to clear up why she was here and why she sought to arrest Claudius instead of kill him. At first, she hesitated about answering that request but she knew she had to. "Sit down Maul and prepare yourself for a very long story full of pain, sorrow, loss, despair, politics, signed off in blood," Ophelia warned him And sit down for the long lecture, Maul did for the sake of respecting her struggle with the past.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Ophelia was born the youngest of five children and Claudius was the middle child. Both were children of Coriolanus Draco of the Draconian Throne on the planet of Nyx. Their oldest brother Laertes was more fit to rule than Claudius was but Ophelia had a feeling that unless Claudius did something to aid him, that rule would not come unless their father died in war. Because at that time, their father was waging war with his own father who ruled the Erebus Throne as had a thousand generations worth of Kings before until Ophelia's father married their mother and took rule of the Draconian Throne via negotiations between their parents.

When it came time for Coriolanus to elect an heir, he refused because one of the terms was that if Coriolanus had two sons, he was to surrender the one he did not elect to rule when his father died. Coriolanus loved Claudius and Laertes equally and had faith in both of them being good kings. So when he had not made a decision when his father came to collect, he declared war upon his father. But Claudius felt unfit to become ruler so from age twelve (when the war began between his father and grandfather) to age fourteen, he conspired with Laertes to gain the trust of the Parliament and use them to reunite the planet under one rule.

As the Parliament was filled with petty lords who would like nothing more than to side with one side to oppose the lords on the other due to old feuds, Claudius found that part surprisingly easy. They assassinated the ones that came even remotely close to finding out the truth and none of the others suspected a thing since they were too busy worrying about their own sense of honor and duty. When the lords of Parliament were slowly eliminated by their own feuds (with nothing to tie them together), the Monarch Council (the second branch of government and the older of the two) took all their responsibilities.

Since the Monarch Council was a council of twelve members, Claudius and Laertes killed off the younger ones and watched the older ones die. The family then took all responsibilities and Laertes left to become Chief of Military in the Erebus Throne whilst Claudius went and became the same for their father's Throne. In secret, they traded secrets of military operations for each other that would prolong the war long enough to demoralize the commoners on both sides. Amazingly, it only took a year for the demoralization to be completed and then Claudius dispatched agents to begin revolts in local villages that would spread into the capitals of both empires.

Then Claudius made the final step towards the union by sending the coordinates for his father's very doorstep. Their grandfather attacked under the cover of the night and the defense of the Draconian Throne were barely strong enough to buy Claudius time to finish the conspiracy. Luckily, Claudius managed to activate a portal that would allow only two people to escape and his father had quickly and impulsively chosen that two of Claudius' sisters (Helena and Ophelia) would be the ones to escape. "I already lost my beloved Juliet and the daughter named after her, I will not lose these two as well," the King of the Draco family had said to him.

Determined to prevent his father from cheating him of his destiny, Claudius remembered how he had made sure to become as close to his younger sisters as he could. Taking advantage of that, he seduced Helena into coming a little too close to him after Ophelia went through the portal. He had already tricked his father into fighting his own father by saying that even with his dagger, he couldn't quite possibly handle so many soldiers. Helena came and thanked Claudius for having so much faith in her and for loving her when their father never could.

Then he betrayed and murdered her with the poison-laced dagger, powerful enough to kill her in four seconds with just one stab. Before stepping into the portal, Claudius heard his father vow that he would hunt him down and kill him. Calmly, Claudius had replied that he wouldn't be then initiated the thirty-second countdown to self-destruct of the entire palace upon his entrance into the portal. Then he stepped through and was teleported a hundred and eight standard miles away from the Palace for the rendezvous with Ophelia.

When Ophelia asked where Helena had gone, Claudius quickly made up a story that she had been shot by one of their grandfather's archers before she could enter. After he made that story up, they felt a slight wind on their skin and a rumble beneath their feet which Claudius recognized as the destruction of the Draconian Palace as well as the entire city in its immediate vicinity. As a parting shot, Claudius persuaded Laertes to dissolve the Parliament of the Erebus Throne as his first kingly order, ruling the entire planet through Monarch Council which composed of enough members to rule the planet without Parliament. With the conspiracy's goal completed and Claudius having abdicated his right to be King, Laertes bid his brother and sister farewell before they headed into the unknown.

Via a chance meeting with Odette, Claudius discovered that Ophelia was Force-sensitive and so, he relinquished his sister to her to continue to his own ambitions without her interfering. He went on to become one of the most brilliant scientists in space travel and engineering for space-to-space, space-to-ground, and ground-to-ground weaponry, inventing patents that surprised and baffled many of his competitors. But his finest field of work was when he discovered the taboo of science known as interdimensional travel, the ability to channel enough Force energy, space, and time to create a portal to another dimension whether it'd be parallel or radically different. Using his inferior abilities in weapons engineering and travel as mere pastimes, Claudius eventually managed to make time for a trip to the Outer Rim where he believed he could find the missing piece in his little puzzle.

It was a small planet of no significance where it was believed that the Sith Emperor of the Great Galactic War was believed to have died. What it turned out to be was the once glorious realm of the Sith known as Malachor V. It became painfully obvious to Claudius that the Sith Emperor had exhausted the Dark Side energies of Malachor in an attempt to hold on to his body long enough to find a fresher one to take possession of. Unfortunately, Claudius was the only other human immediately available to the immortal but ill Sith Emperor.

It was unknown as to whether or not the Sith Emperor actually managed to take possession of Claudius or if the younger man had resisted his spirit or even that he possibly dominated it. Either way, Claudius found the missing piece to his puzzle and finished the portal that he had started using for the quest to the dimension of Heraklion Prime. With the device, Claudius could hold the power to either destroy all reality or else rule it as its omnipotent and godly dictator. And all of this was the reason that Ophelia and Maul were presently on their mission to hunt him down before he could have a chance to reach Heraklion Prime and complete his plans for the universe.

** Maul listened intently** as Ophelia finished her story and knew it was hard for her to have revealed all this to him. It made him feel bad that he even brought up Claudius' request to have her tell him. "I'm sorry about your family and for the sake of the universe, I hope the Sith Emperor didn't succeed in possessing Claudius," Maul said. Then he added that if the Emperor did, they were in for a lot more trouble than they had ever been before.

**The first trouble of that** day was when Claudius noticed his glasses were no longer working properly. He knew he maintained them regularly and knew that they were clean this time. Sensing something wrong with them (or else he needed a new prescription) he took them off and was shocked to see what the change really was. His eyesight had improved drastically, beyond the need for glasses but he couldn't believe this astounding regression from what he had been told about being likely to go blind before he was even forty.

Not only that but he also felt something else, something he had never felt in his entire life. He felt more powerful than he could have possibly imagined and even decided to see if it was the Force at work. Sure enough, was able to lift objects with the Force and he looked at himself with shock and even a profound worry. Do not be alarmed Claudius Draco, I am the Sith Emperor and I am making improvements to this shell of a man; hold still while I fix your slight limp a voice in his head commanded.

After the Emperor gave his signal that Claudius could move, he not only moved. He also ran faster than any normal human ever could or even most of the other creatures back home could. Smiling, Claudius tested his new power on expendable items in the Jedi Temple of this altered version of Heraklion he presently resided in. Making his way to the most powerful vestige of the Force on the planet, he enjoyed every ounce of Force energy he used to clear any would-be warriors of the Overlord out of his way with ease.

It all came to an end when Ophelia and Maul soon caught up with the scientist. "Claudius, stop this now!" Ophelia demanded. "I will never stop, not now when I am-" Claudius began before the Emperor took over. Painfully, Claudius watched as the Sith Emperor's formed a faced on his chest and stomach, his eyes becoming visible as well as a nose and mouth. What hurt even more was when the Emperor started to talk through this manifestation of his majestic power.

"I had hoped to remain hidden in this shell until I could arrive to Heraklion Prime but you left me no choice," he said. Maul was slightly disgusted and even showed it in a snarl but Ophelia was so surprised to see it she nearly fainted. "Hello Ophelia, we meet at last and I presume the man with you is the one called Maul," the Sith Emperor said, introducing himself as Darth Vitiate. "Sorry to interrupt the thing from another time but I have to take down my brother and bring him in now," Ophelia said.

Maul agreed and helped her attack Vitiate and Claudius with a lightsaber in each of their skilled hands. "I'm afraid you cannot be allowed to interfere with our journey to Heraklion Prime," Vitiate said. Then he raised Claudius' arm in the gesture of a Force Push which was powerful enough to send Maul and Ophelia flying several yards. Claudius then used his magnified strength to open the elevator door that would lead them down to the heart of the Temple.

Maul was the first to recover and helped Ophelia to her feet before continuing the pursuit. "I didn't think that was possible but I would imagine that Darth Vitiate had been subtly manipulating Claudius' actions ever since they met on Malachor V. That would explain why Claudius even came up with the ability to judge what dimension to travel to next based on the amount of Force energy in one dimension," Ophelia said to Maul. "Manipulation is a very powerful tool if used right and I believe the Sith Emperor has been using it well for the last few thousand years if not more," Maul replied.

** "So is this the place** where I activate a portal?" Claudius asked his new guest. "Yes, go ahead and do so," the Sith Lord responded. Claudius shot into the wall and the portal opened to the next version of planet Heraklion. On the other side, he was initially spooked by what he saw but the Dark Lord calmed him.

"We're on the Heraklion you named Dark Heraklion where the human race mutates into nocturnal flesh eaters. Your new vision that I give you will be keen enough to help you find a path for us both," Vitiate said. "Should I leave the portal open a little longer?" Claudius asked him. "If you insist on playing this pathetic game of Cat and Mouse, be my guest and do so," answered his new friend.

Claudius did precisely that for although the Sith Emperor would never understand why he played this game, that didn't matter. What did matter was getting to Heraklion Prime so that he could destroy it as was originally planned. In no way would Darth Vitiate change that even for their mutual benefit. Smiling, he walked along the trail that his new vision distinguished for him.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

When Ophelia and Maul went through the portal to the next dimension, they couldn't believe the surprise they stumbled into. They had hardly taken fourteen steps before something that looked like a naked human attacked them. It scratched at them but Maul was quick to sever both of its hands and stab it in the abdomen with one side of his lightsaber. Ophelia was initially upset that Maul had gone to such drastic measures but he reminded her of how it tried to kill them both.

"Probably protecting its territory, looking for food, or else competing for a mate and now we'll never know because of your blunt answer to its ravings," Ophelia said. "A direct course of action was necessary because not only do we not know why it attacked us but we also don't know what would have happened if we let him scratch us or bite us," Maul replied. Ophelia gave up after that and they continued on their way in this strange, new world but not before she examined the body.

It appeared to be human but there were major differences with claws instead of fingernails and toenails being just a couple. Ophelia also noticed nasty, brown or rotten, sharp teeth and a rather massive erection for a human male. Its skin was so pale that Ophelia guessed that it had not seen sunlight in its entire life, therefore lacking or even needing melanin. She also looked overhead and saw storm clouds so dark that she wandered if the sun ever pierced through them or if there even was one.

"If there's no sunlight, I have some glowsticks we can use to light our way," Maul told her. "Hand me one please," Ophelia replied. He did and she used it to see if there were any other differences that Maul hadn't added onto this new creature. She took a good look at its eyes and noticed that there was almost no color in them saved the pupils which were crystal light-blue and the normal black irises.

But then, the irises were neither the normal size nor even the normal color. It was a paler black than was normal of either herself or Maul for that matter. She was certain now that this creature had never seen sunshine in its life. "I'm guessing that the darkness of this planet must have been going on for a longer time than just the normal few hours we're used to," Maul said.

"Judging by the differences in the body from the normal human male, these creatures have not seen the light of day for many years. It could possibly have even been a century or so since the last beam of sunlight shone on this place," Ophelia agreed. "So sunlight would be no benefit to them now?" Maul asked her. "It could cause them intense pain or death to bring sunlight back," she answered.

"For a Jedi Knight, you are very scientific in your approach to new things," Maul said. "As you know from my storytelling, I grew up around a brother with scientific ambitions for the galaxy. Odette kept me separate from him so that I could concentrate on the philosophies and disciplines of the Jedi Order," Ophelia replied. Maul smiled and began walking on the trail they had landed in with Ophelia soon following after him.

** "We should rest at a cave** if possible," Claudius said. "We keep going until we reach the gate to the next dimension that we will enter. Besides, your pursuers are not as far away as you may think. Turn around and see for yourself where they presently are," the Sith Emperor commanded.

To his surprise, Claudius saw that Ophelia and Maul were just two miles from his last point of entry and would be picking up his trail soon enough. "Tell me something Emperor, when you launched your first efforts to invade my galaxy, who were the two men you trusted to that effort?" Claudius asked. "Their names were Darth Revan and Darth Malak, they never contacted me again after I dispatched them on that mission, why do you ask this question?" Vitiate answered. "Oh nothing, except for the fact that Revan and Malak proved strong enough to resist you to the point of blacking out their memory of you and assuring themselves that they were invading the Republic for their gains," Claudius explained.

"They betrayed me yet attempted to carry out my plans regardless? A very interesting paradox, Claudius," Vitiate said. "And now that your Empire has been dead for thousands of years, you only enduring on the remaining powers of Malachor, what do you plan to do with me and the rest of the universe?" Claudius inquired of his guest. "Easy enough: when we arrive at Heraklion Prime, I will call upon the core's powers to merge us into one body then kill your pursuers along with the rest of reality. Since the Force can endure beyond physical limits, I will merge us with it and we will become eternity," the Sith Emperor explained.

Claudius laughed and Vitiate asked how he found that complex plan amusing. "Let's say we succeed and you merge yourself with the Force itself and then?" Claudius asked. "I will obtain all knowledge of both Light and Dark Sides and all the power of the Force, my purpose will be fulfilled," the Sith Lord explained. "If you have all knowledge and power, you're what we normal people call a god," Claudius said.

"My purpose will be complete and the universe will at last be mine," Vitiate snarled. "I can show you a purpose beyond that if you allow me to do that," Claudius offered. "Your significantly shorter life and lesser experience than myself could not possibly offer me anything beneficial," Vitiate answered. "Since we've become so accustomed to each other, I'll let that slide but I'm willing to offer you something that you always lacked even when you launched your invasion and managed to plan it," Claudius said.

"Which is?" the Sith Emperor asked. "Imagination as is shown by your plans' lack of flexibility. Not to mention how easily the Jedi brought it down once they were on their feet," Claudius answered. "What can you do to improve that weakness for me?" Vitiate asked.

** Ophelia recognized Claudius' footprints** as soon as the glowstick's light went over the boot prints he left. "Maul, I see the footprints now!" she said. "Excellent, which direction are they headed?" he asked. "Around this curve here, I don't know anymore than that," she answered.

Once they saw where the trail went, they became confident they would soon be finding Claudius. Maul even said he saw something that looked a little more like a normal human than one of the mutants. "How can you tell?" Ophelia asked. "Whoever it is happens to be walking erect as supposed to the arched back of that mutant we saw earlier," Maul answered.

Ophelia suddenly remembered that she had packed a pair of macrobinoculars before she left the temple and pulled them out to confirm Maul's report. "That's him all right," she said when she saw the familiar shape of Claudius. Suddenly, she noticed something strange and investigated further. "But that's not all I see," she added.

"The Emperor?" Maul inquired. She nodded after seeing a massive face sticking out of her brother's chest and abdomen. "Yeah, it's him," she answered with disappointment. Maul looked at the skies and saw lightning for the first time on this mission.

"Let's find a nearby cave where none of those things are sleeping until we know whether or not it's safe to travel during a storm. It's what our little forecast appears to be," Maul said. Ophelia nodded in agreement and searched for one with her macrobinoculars from their perch. It didn't take her long to spot one nor did it take long to recognize that Claudius had ventured into that cave.

"I spotted a cave Claudius just entered with the Emperor. If we hurry, we can end this now," Ophelia said. She and Maul then stepped up the pace and ran as fast as they could to reach Claudius. "I knew he would have to rest at some time," Maul said.

"How did you know?" Ophelia asked. "Claudius requires a great deal of mental and physical energy to be able to sustain Lord Vitiate's residence in his body. He can't keep up such a performance as would satisfy a powerful spirit like that unless he slept heavily or meditated for a couple hours. Either way, he's ours if we hurry to his location," Maul answered.

_** Damn you Claudius,** they're on our trail once more_ Darth Vitiate cursed to his acolyte. _You switch me places then you'll understand what it's like to possess you in my body for extended periods of time unless you'd rather I crash and you become a bodiless soul cursed to live forever between life and death. It doesn't matter to me one way or the other_ Claudius replied.

_ Perhaps I should retreat back into your mind and remain invisible again. Would that help you move it a little more rapidly?_ Vitiate asked. _Yes, as a matter of fact, that would _Claudius answered. Lord Vitiate did as requested and retreated back to the dark recesses of Claudius' mind and growled under his breath that if Claudius didn't get his rest and hurry again, he would destroy him and take possession of a more physically fit body like perhaps Maul's.

_ One problem: if you do that, you will never reach the core of Heraklion Prime and be forced to content with the best our galaxy has to offer you instead_ Claudius said to him. Darth Vitiate was not heard from after that and Claudius thought that perhaps it was for the better. After all, he needed his sleep and how could he get that with Vitiate speaking to his mind? It would make him even less prepared for Maul and Ophelia who were rapidly catching up with him.

** Maul ignited his lightsaber** long before they arrived and pushed Ophelia out of the path. She was about to ask why he did that when she saw him cut down another of the mutated creatures. He sliced in half with one clean stroke and in return for saving her life, she managed to save his from yet another mutant. "We must be intruding upon important territory, they wouldn't be so bold if we weren't," Ophelia said to her companion.

"It's either that or else a potential mating ground for these monsters," he replied. "I think I see a possible female, you're probably right," she agreed. Unfortunately, she noticed (too late) that Claudius had suddenly walked out of the cave and detected them below. He ran away from the cave and continued to follow the trail that the portal gun's scanners led him on.

_** If you let me, I can lead**_ _the way and you will not have to rely on that tracking device's scanner. You can use it solely for creating a portal into the next dimension we need to go through_ Vitiate said. "Now why you didn't mention that earlier is beyond me," Claudius replied. _You never gave me time to inform you before you used my powers to fight our pursuers off our backs_ Vitiate complained.

"If that's the case, I think I need to be listening to you more often, don't I?" Claudius rhetorically asked. _The sooner we lose them, the better off we will both be_ Vitiate said, ignoring Claudius's rhetorical comment. Claudius looked at his portal gun scanner one last time and noticed that if he wanted to find the next point of departure, he would have to go back into that cave or find another entry into the same passage. He opted to find a way around the current trail, leading back to the cave without running into Maul and Ophelia if he could.

It was a lot better than just turning tails while they were right behind him with only a few dozen mutants between them. And it was much better than fighting his way through them too.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

"Maul, stop, they're backing off!" Ophelia shouted. Maul stopped in the middle of a stroke that would have decapitated another of the mutants and noticed that she was right. "Guess they know better than to mess with us now," Maul said. "Or else the females have lost interest, moved elsewhere, and they need to haul ass before they lose a chance to mate for this year," Ophelia agreed.

"Regardless, let's take shelter in that cave for the night. After all, we don't yet know if the storms here can harm us or not," Maul said. Ophelia nodded and made sure there were no more mutants before she gave the all-clear signal to Maul. Maul entered and instantly saw beautiful blue lights emerging from crystals all around the cave walls.

"It's amazing, isn't it? They all look like they've got enough light in here to keep those mutants at bay assuming they fear light," Ophelia said. "Maybe that's why they keep away from these caverns but how do we know we can even remove one from the walls, let alone use it to light our way?" Maul asked. "That's what I'm going to try and find out, hand me that bag please," Ophelia answered, pointing to a handbag next to her flank.

Maul pushed it into her hand with the Force and he was surprised to see her pry out some tools. "You came prepared for this, did you not?" he asked. "Yes, I'm a lady of science plus the Council will want me to bring back proof of my adventures if we survive," she answered. Maul smiled and took a seat on a boulder near the entrance to the cave while she tested her tools on an ideal sample.

He listened as she spoke to herself aloud about the crystal and extracting it from the hard rocks. "Hmm, they're not that strong; almost like cutting off plants," Ophelia said to herself. He chuckled as she continued to talk about what seemed to be the properties of the strange crystals. Then he heard her call him over to her and he went to her to see what she had managed to do with the bright crystals.

"Look at that, it dims then shines brightly every now and then. I'm guessing that when I cut it off, I cut it a supply line of power from the other crystals. That and perhaps it may be rerouting its veins to keep resupplying it with lots of power," Ophelia said. Maul was lost but it didn't matter, he was interested in some of the things Ophelia spoke of since he had never learned much about science back at home.

**_Claudius, may I be allowed_**_ to come out of your mind? _Vitiate asked. "It hurts like hell but if you must, then be my guest," Claudius answered. Vitiate recreated his face across Claudius' chest and abdomen, scanning the environment around them and expressing Claudius' disappointment at his choice of dimensions to flee to. "Let me set something straight to you: if you want to use the Force to traverse dimensions, you have to be content with some eerie places," Claudius snarled.

"When we arrive to Heraklion Prime, it'd better be nowhere near as dismal as this dimension," Vitiate said. "Can't guarantee first-class accommodations but I assure you Heraklion Prime is nowhere near as ugly as this place," Claudius replied. "And how would you know?" asked the Emperor. "I've seen it and I have studied its properties to confirm its place in the dimensions of the universe," Claudius explained to his compatriot.

"Very well, if you insist on this being the truth of it," Vitiate said. "Oh but it is, I have even obtained samples from Heraklion Prime that were left back at my lab in the Heraklion we knew. You would have loved to see it and feel the Force flowing through just the soil samples I collected from that place," Claudius said. "Perhaps when we reach it, I will know its power," Vitiate said.

**"This is perfect!"** Ophelia said. "For what?" Maul asked. "Do you not know? It's perfect for us," Ophelia answered.

"I don't know what you mean," Maul said, honestly beginning to fret with fear. "Maul, I have something to confess to you," she said. "Go ahead," he replied.

"If you don't mind me saying so… I think I've… fallen in love with you. I know the Jedi are forbidden from such attachments and now, I think I see why. Because of this pain in my chest, this pain in my heart that I've never known not even with my family," Ophelia explained. "I've never known love, I've only known lust for a woman but lust can only go so far," Maul replied.

"Did it ever give you a burn in your heart that drove you madder and madder as it burned stronger and stronger?" Ophelia said. Maul paused, thinking about how best to answer that question. Then he answered her with honesty: "Actually, my heart was never even stirred once during all of those lusts as I was just using them to get at the people I've killed." Ophelia looked disappointed but then she extended a hand to his cheek and said that she was amazed at his inability to feel emotion.

"I have more of a heart than even I thought I did. However, it was necessary I'd suppress it or else my master would make me endure enough physical, mental, and/or emotional pain to kill you and Claudius," Maul replied. "How could you survive so much cruelty, pain, and hatred?" Ophelia asked. "I'm genetically adapted for it as a result of being an Iridonian Zabrak and one of the descendants of Sith Lords who developed a way of surviving (but not without feeling it) greater pains than a human could possibly take," Maul answered.

"You have one fucked up Master if you don't mind me saying that to you. I mean, why would someone do that to a man as handsome as yourself?" she asked him. "I have a secret to confess to you but you must swear _absolute _secrecy before I can trust you with this confession," he answered. She gave her most solemn oath in the name of the Draconian Throne that she would not betray his secret.

"I am an apprentice to a Sith Lord by the name of Darth Sidious and I have been his slave for as long as I can remember which is since I was a child," Maul admitted. "That must be very harsh on your ability to care, on your ability to live like a man," Ophelia said, in a sympathetic tone. "Sometimes, it drives me utterly mad but other times, it's my only salvation from pain of a deep kind," Maul replied. "You are so gloomy, shut up and kiss me you fool," Ophelia ordered before uniting her lips with his.

Maul had never known a finer kiss in his life than such that Ophelia chose to grant him on this dark night. "Have you had your way with a woman before?" Ophelia asked him. "Mostly against their will unless I seduced them with my charm, why?" he answered. "I want you to have your way with me, if you know my meaning," she explained.

"I… I can't… I just can't," Maul said. "Why not? I love you and I would not have offered myself to you if I didn't love you," she told him. "Maybe you do but how could you love a hideous beast that enjoys murder like me?" he asked.

"You only _appear _that way Maul because that's what you choose to make of who you are though it is not who you truly are," she answered, like a soothing mother to her child. She even placed a hand on his cheek as if to emphasize her point. "I've never even fallen in love once, how can I possibly know how to love you?" he asked. "Until I met you, I never fell in love either but now that you're here, I can't seem to resist you in spite of my Code," she answered.

"Would you love me even if I told you I was the one who killed Odette on the night before this mission began?" he asked her. Ophelia's eyes and face went pale with shock and she said nothing to him. "I will say she did not go down easily, she was a worthy adversary and had I known you would feel this way for me I would have let her live," he assured her. "I vowed I would find the one who would kill my master… and I never knew or suspected that I was working with him," she thought aloud with a heavy, sad heart.

"It's why I didn't want to admit my feelings, let alone hear you developed similar feelings for me. And it's why I kept to myself for much of the journey," he admitted. Suddenly, he saw something he never thought he'd see: a tear dropped from her eye followed by another. He moved to wipe it away from her but she slapped his hand away from her, saying she'd kill him if he tried anything like that in the near future.

"I'm sorry," he said before exiting the cave to find some mutants to take out his guilt, anger, and shame upon. It was better than waiting for Ophelia to act upon her vow to take revenge against him. Hell, it was certainly better than looking at another dead Jedi as he had done with Odette just days before. He couldn't believe how he had just used a deed he had done to shun away probably the only chance at goodness he would ever receive before Sidious would wipe away all good and replace it with cruelty and the will only to murder.

**Claudius was a few miles** away from the point of entry into the next dimension when he sensed a great pain in his heart that wasn't his own pain. He realized that being attuned to the Force and connected to Ophelia by blood made him feel what she felt and in this case, that feeling was sadness. _It should be momentary, once you're accustomed to having the Force you will not feel this quite as severely as you do right now _Darth Vitiate told him. "That doesn't help me much right now and you should know that," Claudius replied.

Then he added that he wanted to turn back and help her. _You cannot do that now that she is your enemy. Even if she is your sister, you cannot afford to be distracted from our mission to rule the universe as one being, invincible and unaffected by petty emotions _Vitiate snapped. "I have your powers and as long as you're trapped within me, we're doing as _I _command, understood?" Claudius snarled.

_Very well, be it so but perhaps I can reach to a compromise which is something I have done with no other _Vitiate said. "Name it," Claudius ordered. _I can conjure a vision of you or someone else in the family with a deeper connection to her so that she may feel better about whatever has happened tonight_ Vitiate explained. "The only one who was closer to her than me before the end of the Draconian Throne was our father, could you conjure a vision of him for her to rely on?" Claudius asked.

_I don't know why you go to all the trouble even if she is your sister but very well. For you and you only, I shall do this. But first, you have to let me into your mind so I can conjure an accurate vision of what he looked like _Vitiate answered. "Very well, I'll let you do that but be swift. I don't want you in my mind for too long and I have the willpower to push you away if it comes to that," Claudius said.

**Ophelia sat there and cried,** who could blame her since she had to find out that she fell in love with the man who killed the closest thing to a mother she ever had in her life? She couldn't believe she had even collaborated with him, let alone offered herself to him. _What was I thinking? No wonder the Jedi Order forbids such attachments as our own _Ophelia thought.

"The Jedi forbid such attachments because they are afraid that the mistakes of such a relationship will ruin their sense of perfection," said a familiar voice. Ophelia turned in its direction and to her surprise, saw her father walking toward her from a door in the wall that was made purely of bright light. "But he killed Odette, the only woman I could ever have called a mother since you and my real one perished inside the Draconian Palace when I was a girl," Ophelia said, tears making words difficult. "Hush child, you must not blame him for what he didn't know would happen when he killed your Jedi mentor," said the apparition of her father.

"But I promised myself that I would find her murderer and bring him to justice as well, don't you understand that dad?" she asked. "Yes I do, for once, I had sought revenge against your deceased uncle for slashing me across my left temple. Which was the scar you grew up with when you were with me if I recall correctly," he answered calmly. "But didn't you take revenge?" she inquired, still feeling down.

"No, I banished him but that was not out of revenge. He killed our mother when he tried to assassinate our father and since I was ruling at that time, I knew it would do her justice to banish him," Coriolanus answered. "So are you saying I should… forgive Maul for what he did to Odette?" Ophelia asked, surprised her own father would recommend such a weak course of action. "A lust for revenge against him now would destroy you and make you no better than the Sith Emperor that possesses your brother now, work with him and perhaps you may have a chance to do justice for others instead of revenge for yourself," Coriolanus answered.

"Well, I would be serving the Jedi Code in that fashion but how do I know I'll have that chance?" she begged. "You will know when the time comes for you to do it," he answered. He extended a hand and wiped her tears from her eyes, smiling with that paternal smile that always healed her broken heart as he did so. "I have to go now, I'm merely an apparition that can stay for so long in the land of the living before I return to the realm of the dead," Coriolanus added.

"Wait, don't leave me! Tell me how you got here in the first place," she begged. "The realm of the dead encompasses all dimensions and sees everything the living do," he answered. "Is a man by the name of Alec from a dimension where the Jedi are evil in there?" she asked. "I do not know but we would have welcomed one with such a name and origin had he been killed or passed away of old age," he explained.

Ophelia smiled and thank her father because it told her that Alec was alive, especially when he added that someone called the Jedi Overlord had recently arrived to the land of those who died. He went through the portal of light which then closed and produced a blank stone wall in the dark caves. Thinking about her father's advice, she decided to call Darth Maul back to her but she knew the only way to do it was to use her sonic scream with some Force power for greater distance. It had destructive power but it could be also used to communicate messages across vast distances if it proved to be a necessity as it did right now; she stepped out to the entrance, took a deep breath, and released the awesome power within him.

It was a scream that sounded less like a scream and more of a song. A song that carried in the sonic spectrum across the dark recesses of Lightning Heraklion's mountains. She knew it wouldn't be long before he detected it and after she finished, she decided to sit and wait.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

_Are you happy now that your sister is feeling better about herself? _Vitiate asked. "Yes Sith Lord, I am happy now that I know she's happy once more. Even if this is indeed a most unhappy environment to be in," Claudius answered. _I should've picked an emotionally harder host instead, _you _come to Malachor and I have no choice but subtly manipulate your actions even now _Vitiate hissed.

"When we're over in the next dimension, you can hope to solve that problem with the technology they may have," Claudius replied. _What dimension are we going to next if you don't mind me asking that? _Vitiate asked. "A dimension where the first Sith Lords never even discovered the Dark Side thus the galaxy has known peace since the birth of the Jedi Order," Claudius answered. He added that to him, it was a virtual paradise with every bit of beauty that a man could hope to find in a single lifetime.

_With your sister and her friend following us, we may have to ruin some of that beauty to escape them _Vitiate stated. "Sad as it is, you're right but let's try and avoid that shall we?" Claudius asked. _Agreed _Vitiate replied sarcastically. Then he asked if they were near the point of entry into that beautiful dimension Claudius spoke of.

"It won't be very far now, just need to conquer a few more mountains before we finally reach it if this scanner still works," Claudius said, looking at his screen with a small frown. _It will not matter if that thing doesn't work, I can pick up the rest of the trail now that you've conquered the bulk of it. In fact, I want you to forget that scanner entirely and let me lead the way _Vitiate said. "Very well, I'll just simply throw it away now and the Jedi can use it if they wish," Claudius replied with enthusiasm.

**Maul heard the sonic** wave long before he felt the Force energy added into it. But it didn't take him much time to deduce that Ophelia was the original emitter of that scream. _I'm probably going to get a solid slap to my face at the very least for what I did to her _he told himself. He finished killing three more male mutants before he decided to head back, his steam fully blown off of him.

He thought about what he should do in case Ophelia was still mad at him for Odette's death. Would he have to fight or worse, would he have to kill her after coming so far with her? Could that be a likely outcome and while they fought, Claudius would escape into the next dimension and then to Heraklion Prime itself? Getting back to the cave was the easy part, accepting that what may happen wouldn't be pretty was the difficult part for him to accept.

With a heavy sigh, he stepped back into the cave whether to face her wrath or be forgiven by her amnesty. She saw him standing where he was at the entry and she asked if he had anything to say for himself about what he confessed to her on this night. He shook his head then added, "If you're going to kill me, I deserve it; just get it over with." She hesitated but continued on with the strength of a true Master of the Jedi ways.

"I'm not going to kill you, in fact, I'm going to overlook what you did entirely. Because if we start fighting now, Claudius will use every second of it to get closer and closer to Heraklion Prime and his goals for reality," Ophelia explained. But she added that she'd do it after she did something to make sure he understood that it had hurt her terribly. And before he could ask what that was, she punched him across his left cheek and barely avoided knocking a couple teeth out of his mouth.

"For an Iridonian Zabrak, you take pain quite well," she told him. "And for a human, you punch pretty hard," he replied. She smiled and went to sit down on the mattress she set up and meditate on a future course of action against Claudius and Darth Vitiate. Maul had already gotten a clue but decided not to tell her just yet.

"You know, in meditation, I can read your mind. You've got some information I need about the whereabouts of my brother and his friend," Ophelia said not too long after. "You're right, I do have a clue on those two: I discovered some tracks while letting off steam for our argument earlier. I can take you straight to them via photographic memory I possess," Maul replied.

**"Your majesty?"** Claudius teased. _We have reached the point of entry that will take us to the next dimension. Look to your left and shoot into the wall if you want to enter _Vitiate replied. Claudius did as instructed and as promised, the portal into the dimension where no Sith ever existed opened to him.

He stepped through and was immediately blown away by the beauty of the city that came up after he walked out of the alley he landed in. "Look Vitiate, look what the Sith have hindered back on our own dimension," Claudius said. _If you say one more offensive word against the Sith, I will be sure to drop you first chance I manage to obtain here _Vitiate hissed. "Yeah right," Claudius replied.

**Maul and Ophelia** were surprisingly near Claudius' position because the portal had yet to be deactivated when they came to its point of origin. "What do you know? We were fast enough to where Claudius kindly left his door open," Maul teased with a smile. Ophelia smiled back and went through first just in case Claudius happened to be right there.

Both were baffled by the city they came to when they stepped through the portal to what Claudius dubbed Heraklion Serenity for its serene and quiet environment. "Look Maul, isn't it beautiful?" Ophelia asked. "Almost as beautiful as you but you know, I really have to wonder why our home couldn't be like this," Maul answered. Ophelia and Maul walked about and saw nothing that even remotely related to either the Heraklion of their dimension or even Coruscant.

"Hello young ones, can I help you with anything at all?" asked an elderly woman before hesitating at Maul's appearance. "Yes, as a matter of fact, there is something you can help us with. Can you tell us if you saw a man with my kind of red hair and about the height of my friend if not a little taller?" Ophelia asked her. "If you mean Lord Claudius Draco, then yes I have," the woman answered calmly.

_Lord? Wait a minute, the plane of time is different with each entry into the portal. Claudius could very easily have been here months before we even arrived if not years when back home, it would have been mere days _Maul thought. "And Claudius put a reward on anyone who found two people with descriptions, identical to yours," the woman said as if to confirm his very thoughts.

"Ophelia, we have to leave now. Thank you ma'am for your time, we'll be on our way now," Maul said. But it was too late, the woman sounded the alarm by screaming bloody murder to a nearby Jedi Knight who apparently acted as an officer of law enforcement as well. "Halt, in the name of Lord Claudius Draco!" he shouted. "Get back, I've been trained my whole life to kill Jedi and you don't want to know what it's like," Maul warned to Ophelia.

Ophelia did as instructed and let Maul take over from that point. "You really think you can get away with your crimes against the good Lord?" the Jedi Knight asked. "Oh so you think you know Claudius and you know us as well?" Maul replied with a snarl. "We know about how you plan to assassinate Claudius and take his technology for yourselves, you evil bastard!" the Knight said to him.

"You think you can fight against the power of the Dark Side of the Force when all your life has been mainly fighting pirates and feeble punks with blasters that couldn't last two seconds against the skills of your Order's ways? You're more pathetic than the Jedi I've killed back home," Maul replied, insulting and degrading him but not mocking him. The Jedi raised his blade over his head but Maul quickly exploited the lethargy in that stroke by lunging with one end of his own lightsaber and stabbing the Jedi in the abdomen. It was quicker than Ophelia or anyone could react but Maul enjoyed every second of this Jedi's end just as much as he had enjoyed Odette's demise before he fell in love with Ophelia during the mission.

**Claudius was enjoying** a glass of wine when he heard the unfortunate news. Ophelia and Maul had arrived and just when he was beginning to enjoy his time in this serene paradise he had never known back where he came from. But that wasn't all: he had received the report of Maul killing a Jedi Knight in the streets with only cold blood in him. "Claudius, something troubling you?" asked Heather, the woman he had grown accustomed to seeing.

"Yes my sweet, the people hunting me down are here and they've come for my head with as much determination as ever. I'm afraid I may have to leave you soon and I don't know if I'm ever coming back," Claudius answered. Heather began to cry, for she had grown to love him and he held her as she wept. _Stop this pathetic display of weakness and prepare for their arrival to the Palace _Vitiate rudely interlude in his mind.

_I have been here long enough to come to love her and mark my words, I will kill us both if you say one more word against my wishes for this or any other dimension. Am I understood? _Claudius replied. Vitiate said no more and for that, Claudius was grateful because at that moment, a messenger came and told him that Maul and Ophelia were walking in the direction of his Palace. "Assemble all the Jedi you can immediately assemble and someone take Heather out of here before any fighting begins tonight," Claudius ordered, adding he didn't want her to get hurt.

"I'm more worried about you love than you could be for me. I want to know that you're coming back but I guess I shouldn't hope for that," she said, her heart weighed down by what was going to happen. Claudius couldn't help but feel pity for her and sadness they couldn't be together in spite of his growing madness. He had to continue to Heraklion Prime, Darth Vitiate was right about that much but he had to eliminate Maul and Ophelia or at least distract them long enough to make a neat escape.

The Jedi Masters immediately with him notified that their Council had chosen to send in the full strength of the Order immediately on the planet for this occasion. "How many are we accounting for?" Claudius asked. "Somewhere between two to three thousand able bodies," answered the Master that informed him. "Good, I want double shifts for every one of them until those two have been spotted and taken either dead or alive," Claudius declared.

**"I think that's the Palace** we're looking at unless it's just some massive factory meant to produce goodies for children on this planet," Maul said to Ophelia. Ophelia looked and saw that the place was sprawling with Jedi Knights. "We'll never get in there without being detected, Claudius anticipated our arrival almost like he foresaw it before we arrived," she said. "He probably did thanks to Darth Vitiate being in his head and giving him the power of the Force to use practically as he wants to," Maul replied.

"What should we do about them?" she asked. "I'll lure them out and you get ready to use your scream on them," Maul answered. Ophelia was surprised that he would ask that of her and even tried to reason with him out of it. "What else do you have in mind, hack and slash our way through their numerous ranks?" Maul asked.

Ophelia shrugged and asked how much energy she would need to use for the initial assault. Maul told her at least enough to kill them with little to know effect on her physical body. "Okay but I want you out of the way the moment I inhale and start saving up power," Ophelia said. Maul walked down to the Palace after that and called the attention of the Jedi towards him by yelling at them.

Ophelia noticed a Jedi Captain had spotted him and was barking orders at nearby Knights. Soon, more than twelve hundred began to descend from the Palace and toward them. Maul ran at that moment, smiling as he did so since he would finally see the power of Ophelia's sonic scream amplified by the energy of the Force within her. Ophelia readied herself, remembering a posture of control that Odette had taught her early on in her training.

Extending her arms out completely and making sure her palms faced the enemy before stretching her arms apart as if to create a loud speaker with her arms then yelling at Maul to tell her when to begin accumulating power. She also gave him a little side warning that even if he was safe from the deadly sonic rays, it would be best for him to cover his ears just in case the sheer volume would be enough to pop his eardrums. He yelled for her to begin and jumped out of the way, using the Force to land behind her and cover his ears before turning around and watching her use her power upon the enemy Jedi. As quickly as she could, she begin to inhale all the oxygen into her lungs and diaphragms, readying her vocal cords to deliver the sonic rays and amplifying them with her Force power before exhaling right then and unleashing the scream of a goddess.

The scream didn't just kill, it tore off clothes, skin, and stone, the wave creating a deep skid in the ground that also saw to the end of the Jedi. They were little more than blood-stained bones by the time the wave passed over them. And Ophelia was almost completely exhausted when she finished but Maul saved her from hitting her head on the hard floor. "Don't ever ask me to use the scream again?" she begged.

"I assure you that if I can help it, I won't," Maul replied with a cold smile. "Now let's go kick Claudius' ass and bring him back home for his trial," she stated. "To that I couldn't agree more, which is why I want you to go after him alone. I'll hold off the Jedi (acting on behalf of my master in carrying out some of the good old Sith vengeance upon them) while you go and finish this little adventure," he said.

Ophelia rose up and kissed him on the cheek before they made their way towards the Palace, their lightsabers ready to do what they did best. Maul was excited at the chance to kill Jedi in a way that would benefit the quest in every way and hinder it in none. Readying both sides of his double-sided lightsaber, he returned the kiss and said, "May the Force be with us both", before calling the remaining Jedi out of the Palace. _No doubt it's going to be the biggest battle we have ever had to fight during this entire adventure across multiple dimensions in the goal of saving all reality from the wishes of Claudius and Darth Vitiate _he thought excitedly.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

"It's a shame more than half of your entire force was destroyed, Master Jedi. If you had listened to me and avoided marching your soldiers into a situation where my sister's sonic scream could be used, we wouldn't be having this discussion," Claudius snarled. "Calm down my lord, this battle is not yet over and don't worry, I have the last one thousand on hold in case we need them," replied a Jedi Master named Horus. "Forget them, you need them to protect your Temple in case anything else may be going on," Claudius ordered, frustrated.

"Why forget them? It's not like we have terrorist groups that could attack at any moment," Horus asked. "Because if I remember correctly, there are those who fear and hate the peace you brought to this galaxy by force of arms, right?" Claudius answered. "I was there when that happened and peace had existed long before then but wouldn't have continued unless we did what we had to," Horus said.

"Spoken like a true Sith Lord, Darth Vitiate would love to disembody himself from me and unto you were it not for the fact that you have short-sighted goals that don't involve alternate realities," Claudius replied. "No, spoken like a warrior who had to deal the killing blow to that evil Lord whose name must not be mentioned. Yes, I killed that man and I was the one who restored the peace he would have shattered had I not killed him with my blade," Horus said, alarmed Claudius would judge him as a true Sith Lord. "You really think I wouldn't bear to know his name, go ahead and tell me what it was," Claudius ordered.

"You are my lord and master, therefore I must obey. His name was the same as yours, Claudius Draco I," Horus said, obeying his new lord. "Foolish nonsense and poppycock, besides, I made sure to check the history books in case you tried lying to me. The correct name of the lord you killed was Fortinbras III of this planet," Claudius snarled.

"I will always bow before my lord when I am wrong and serve him when he commands it but I tell you now, I do not agree with what you are doing. You will regret it when the time comes for your judgment to be given," Horus vowed. _Do not fret, I already read his mind and he's afraid of you more than he isn't and is trying to hide it by talking big _Vitiate told his host. Claudius smiled and silently thanked Vitiate for giving him the notification as to the true emotions of his Jedi slave.

**"Go find Claudius, I'll hold** off the Jedi hoards!" Maul shouted. Ophelia nodded, remembering that the plan was to take down Claudius by any means necessary as long as he could be taken into custody and not savagely executed. She didn't doubt that Claudius would be seeing what the Sith Emperor could offer him so she made sure to keep her lightsaber near her and constantly activated. The familiar blue blade hummed near her and acted as comfort especially now that Odette was dead, giving her a feeling of vulnerability that she had never experienced.

Sometimes, she wondered if Maul ever experienced that same vulnerability for even a moment but suspected what the answer would be almost as quickly. Knowing that he was an apprentice to a Sith Lord, she doubted he wasn't given very much room for vulnerability if any. So although she knew that the Sith were evil from the history books (with the seeming exception of her love) she tried to imagine herself as one and to imagine how she would chastise herself for this vulnerability.

She entered what she guessed was the Throne Room from sensing a dark presence beyond the door. Cutting through carefully, she began to realize how everything began to click in. Claudius never intended to give up his pursuit of Heraklion Prime, just stay in this dimension long enough to destroy the Jedi and fuel Darth Vitiate's presence in his body. How else could he possibly be so strongly connected to the Force now when he hadn't been previously?

She entered and was not surprised to see a stairway leading to a golden chair with Claudius seated, wearing battle armor that reminded her of home. "Welcome sister to my new empire and oh, a couple of my new friends want to meet you," Claudius said. She knew he had enough time to indulge into the madness of Vitiate's possession and completely lost it. Unfortunately, she had no time to respond to that when to Jedi Masters attacked her from both flanks.

Their green lightsabers hummed to life and zoomed past her as she dodged a slash from each side. Then she turned to face them and managed to cut one down with ease almost immediately. The next one was a little more difficult though, even forcing Claudius to call out to him and tell him to be careful. "Do not blunder into her trap Horus as your Jedi brother Osiris did just now!" he shouted.

The Jedi warrior named Horus took that advice and apparently decided to switch tactics from whatever he was originally using to switch to a style Ophelia had never seen before. Then suddenly, she remembered holograms for a style with the same stances as this one and recognized this form to be Makashi. _So he's wielding Form II of Lightsaber Combat instead of what appeared to have been Form V Djem So a moment ago _Ophelia thought to herself. From there, she immediately determined a weakness in his style that she could immediately exploit with her own lightsaber skills.

Instead of her original tactic of using Soresu to fight him, she upgraded to Ataru and begin to swing and twirl her lightsaber while also jumping into the air repeatedly, twisting her body and performing incredible somersaults as she moved. He put up a terrific fight but due to his old age, he was significantly slower than her and was soon overwhelmed by her acrobatic skills and slashed to death. Claudius applauded her "artwork" then surprised her by using the Force to call both Horus' lightsaber and Osiris' into each of his hands as if he had always had the power of Darth Vitiate within him. "Surprising is it not, the power that Lord Vitiate has granted me during his time in my body?" Claudius asked.

"I would have been disappointed if it were any other way, brother," Ophelia replied. Claudius smiled and attacked first, surprising her with a flurry of slashes from both lightsabers. Switching from the offensive Ataru to the defensive Soresu in order to contain the full fury of her brother's lethal skill. For a long time, all the duel became was an exchange of deflected blows between them with brief moments that might have looked like a turn of tides for one of them but was a false alarm instead.

Then Ophelia realized something: her strategy of wearing her brother down then striking (as Soresu demanded) was not going to work on him, Darth Vitiate fueled him with too much power for that to be possible. Instead, she reignited her spurt of Ataru while simultaneously adding guerilla-style bursts of Djem So in order to hopefully have a start in overwhelming even Vitiate. Surprisingly, her plan worked better than she would have thought it would but she didn't get a chance to enjoy the glory long (nor would she have done so anyway). Because at the next instant, her brother began to turn the tide and even made moves that looked as though the lightsabers had been merged into a double-sided lightsaber like Darth Maul's.

"You know something sister, I never quite understood why father valued you so much even if at the time, you had a connection to the Force and I didn't. While it was true that you had the sonic scream that could be amplified by your powers, I was the true brains of us both before even I knew that," Claudius mocked. Ophelia said nothing for she already knew the answer to that "mystery". The reason their father loved her more than Claudius was because Ophelia used her skills for the good of her people whereas Claudius used his for the benefit of himself and/or Laertes.

However, because she did not answer aloud, Claudius continued his pointless rambling. "I never wanted the throne, I only wanted to bring peace, unity, and equality to the people through the only means in which it could be done. Sure there were a few setbacks, (including the time Laertes accidentally shot me in the leg thus causing my limp) but the benefits have been profoundly rewarding to all but me, even you reaped some benefit without knowing. My means may have indeed mimicked the Sith of the olden days but at least it achieved its goals," he said.

"Whether the intention is good or not, the actions were still evil and will weigh you down until you come to face that reality. Until then, the only difference between you and the Sith is that you were not Force-sensitive while they were," she replied calmly. Claudius seemed enraged by that reply and she even saw a tear, a sight she had not seen in what seemed eternity, run down his cheek. "All my effort to practically hand you your destiny to be a Jedi and this is how you repay me?" he asked.

"I'm sorry Claudius but I cannot forsake the Jedi Code, even for my family," Ophelia answered. "Then you die," Claudius hissed maliciously. "Do you know the fabled Rule of Two supposedly invented by a Sith Lord by the name of Darth Bane?" Ophelia asked, hoping to at least slow the duel and talk some sense into her brother before it was too late. Unfortunately, any hope she had of quelling his killer fire were destroyed when he answered that he knew thanks to Darth Vitiate being in his poisoned but intelligent mind.

"**Surrender now young man** and we promise to beg amnesty from Lord Claudius when you're brought before him for his justice. We give you our most sincere word that this vow will hold firm and true," said an anonymous Jedi Knight to Maul. "I shall never surrender nor shall I beg for mercy, those who beg for mercy do not deserve it," Maul replied with a growl. With that reply, he ignited both ends of his double-sided lightsaber and immediately decapitating an unfortunate warrior that got in the way of one of the lethal, swift, spinning blades.

From then on, Maul did not think with his mind or his heart. His whole body as well as his lightsaber became extensions of the Dark Side itself as Sidious had hammered into his mind for as long as he could remember. He did not care for whether or not he stabbed a female Human or mutilated a male Rodian, all he cared about was that he was at last unleashing his full potential upon these fools who believed in peace over passion, weakness over strength. But lastly, he did not care if he was fighting against four hundred and thirty-two Jedi Knights that were summoned to capture or kill him and Ophelia.

The despair, fear, and hopelessness felt by the weaker Jedi would feed him and drive him to the victory over the stronger ones that was necessary for his salvation. The only thought in his mind was of the Sith verdict that laid the path of power plainly for those who sought it out. _Peace is a lie, there is only Passion. Through Passion, I gain Strength, through Strength I gain Power, through Power I gain Victory, through Victory my chains are broken, through Victory, my chains are broken _he told himself as he slaughtered and butchered his inferior enemies.

He was so consumed in the passion of the fight that he did not notice his vocal cords utter a hideous battle cry that made some wet themselves and give others a mild sweat. As he continued, rapidly dwindling the numbers of his opponent from first three digits to two before approaching one, he slowly cooled his energies so that he could focus them on the last of the Jedi that remained. He even went so far as to take the fear and despair in their hearts from seeing their friends lying dead, whether intact or in pieces, and fueling his final assault to be much more vigorous than his initial efforts.

The last thirteen who stood against him after what seemed like days (but had actually been merely two to three hours) coordinated their attacks simultaneously in a last ditch effort to overcome their enemy. It was an effort that was extended in vain because Maul cut eight more in five minutes and four in another two. The last one got the honor of her arms being severed and Maul's lightsaber pointed mere centimeters from her face. "Wait, who are you to be so powerful?" she asked and he answered before then ramming his blade between her eyes.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

Though it felt like hours, Ophelia soon found out she had bee dueling for only a few mere minutes. When one let the Force flow through them and let their bodies as well as their lightsaber become extensions of their inner power, one had to forget material concepts such as time. But even with this concentration that helped her to last throughout this entire duel, she was starting to sweat and she knew where it would eventually lead in the future. She had to end this duel with her brother and bring him down before exhaustion and fatigue made her an easy target for him.

So instead of continuing her stubborn stance of Soresu, she changed her style back into the acrobatic finesse of Ataru although the switch was slightly messy. However, she deliberately did that so she could make Claudius (and hopefully Darth Vitiate) think that she was beginning to become lethargic with exhaustion. Then, when he had dropped some of his defense, she then switched to Djem So and forced him to back up several steps since Jar'Kai had a weaker defense than it did offense due to each arm having energy being expended to one blade instead of one blade for both hands. She gave him a solid kick to the face and then launched a powerful wave of Force energy that threw her opponent several meters across the room.

It gave her all the space she needed to resume her Ataru tactics without fear of Claudius being able to penetrate her defenses again. "Come on Claudius, use some of your reason to look at where you are! Think of how you are now on my terms, I beg you," Ophelia said. It was a last ditch effort to try and persuade her brother to give up the power Darth Vitiate fed him with but she had a feeling it wouldn't work.

Her feeling was confirmed but what he said to her after that. "You think I'm going to give all this power and the greater power I could obtain over all reality just so you and your puny Order can have their way with me? Never shall I surrender and never will I bow down to _you _again, sister!" he replied. "You never had to bow down to me in the first place, father just was just trying his best to raise a daughter because neither he nor mother had ever grown up around sisters or even had a mother to teach them right from wrong," Ophelia desperately explained.

"Oh please, do not give me that excuse. We both know that seldom acts as a means of justifying how they treated me and how they treated you," Claudius replied. "But that doesn't mean you have to pursue the destruction of all reality if in the end, you just want to get even with our parents!" Ophelia demanded. "Our mother and father abusing me _isn't _the reason I pursue the destruction of all reality," Claudius said.

Ophelia paused for a moment that either Claudius didn't notice or didn't care for before asking him what the reason was if not revenge against their parents. "I heard how our galaxy made promises about peace and beauty but saw only the filth. What's worse was that it was filth making filth making filth making filth! I was hopelessly lost in my quest to find some measure of beauty and had even designed my portal gun just so I could see if there was any such beauty as I imagined for myself," he explained.

When Ophelia had nothing to say to that he continued. "This is the only dimension where I found _any _beauty at all. Unfortunately, its beauty is not enough to compare with the filth that I have seen in all of the others thus, my only choice to find any beauty is to find Heraklion Prime and destroy the reality you know before starting all over again. And when I do start again, I will rebuild all the dimensions into one beautiful and unified universe with no filth.

"Under my guidance, no child will have to feel like his talents are unappreciated just because his sister has a sonic scream that can be amplified by the powers of the Force. It is under me that the ruin brought about by the filth of this universe shall be healed and restored to a greater glory than even your pathetic Jedi Order could possibly imagine. Those short-sighted fools have barely been to the edge of their own galaxy, let alone to entire dimensions of it," Claudius snarled. "No Claudius, with your damaged mind, the 'filth' you claim you're trying to destroy will only worsen under your guidance: we humans have no been made rulers of the universe in all its dimensions for very good reasons, after all," Ophelia replied.

"How you have come to hate me like this is beyond me," Claudius stated before resuming his attack. "I didn't come to hate you, you came to hate me and envy me. You were the one who started blaming me for how you ended up, not the other way around!" Ophelia said between deflecting strokes of her brother's green lightsabers. She continued by adding that once, he had been Ophelia's hero, the man she idolized whenever their father was away fighting their grandfather or making a new ally.

"But now, all I see is a madman broken by the power given him and left with nothing but a lust for greater power. All I see is Darth Vitiate's unfortunate pawn in the schemes of the ancient Sith to resurrect himself and destroy the universe," she concluded. "I wield more power, broken or not and mad or not, than you could possibly imagine, Jedi fool!" Claudius replied. She intercepted another slash from one of his green blades with the full knowledge that he was lost to her.

Darth Maul made his way through the now empty corridors, finishing off what few Jedi had escaped his initial surge of dark power. Unfortunately for him and his lust for blood, these were mere Padawans who had lost Masters to his skillful blade. All disappointed him but they did their job of somewhat satisfying his lust for the moment. What he was really after was Ophelia's brother Claudius without whom, none of this would have been possible.

Fortunately, he had one more obstacle before he could reach Claudius that was actually looking like a challenge to his skills as a warrior. It was a Jedi Master who guarded the door to Claudius' throne room, the very thought of which excited Maul. She was an old human with a wrinkled face that showed nothing but experience in combat. Already, she reminded Maul much of Ophelia's Master Odette and he hoped this one was at least nearly as good.

He was not disappointed when the old woman put up a terrific fight against him before also falling before his use of Juyo and both sides of his double-sided lightsaber. After that, he noticed that there was the added bonus of the door being bolted shut, likely to attempt to keep him from interfering with the duel between Ophelia and her brother. It did a good job considering that all it did was stall his inevitable entry into the confrontation as he slowly cut a circle across the door big enough for him to walk into the room. But by the time he managed to cut it down and walk in, it seemed the duel was already over.

Ophelia continued to alter between Soresu and Djem So as often as possible, keeping an even amount of ground for herself and her brother to duel in. However, Claudius made an unexpected move when he did an undercut in the fashion of scissors with both of his lightsabers and sent hers flying right out of her hands. "It is over now, now I will destroy you at long last!" Claudius gloated. Then he attempted to do a downward slash but she caught both of his arms in her hands, holding back the assault with her raw strength of muscle.

Claudius didn't know what to do at that point since he most definitely could not afford to sacrifice one of his blades just to get free. But Ophelia was free to do the one thing she never wished she had to do: she could use the sonic scream if she had a heart for doing it. Inhaling deeply, she concentrated the air in her lungs into a massive sonic wave then multiplied its power six-fold, seeing Claudius' frightened face as she did the deed. Then she exhaled and unleashed her greatest power upon him, throwing him across the entire throne room like a cur throwing a rag doll.

When he landed at the wall, he hit it hard enough to make the stone crack and practically swallow him into it. She followed that blow quickly with a wave of Force energy from her hands, smashing him right through the wall. Ophelia knew that without Force power, those combined blows would have killed Claudius under normal circumstances if he lasted throughout the earlier lightsaber duel. But these were not normal circumstances so she went to the spot where he went through the wall, igniting her lightsaber in case he wasn't dead.

To her surprise, there was no body to be seen which led her to suspect that he was still alive or else Darth Vitiate had taken possession of his body in order to carry him to the next portal and the dimension beyond it. "He went through the floor and down to the chambers below us," a familiar voice said. "Maul, how did you know and how could you possibly of survived the Jedi hoards? You took so long that I thought they managed to kill you," she asked him.

"You should try giving me more credit than that if you want truly want to find him before he escapes," Maul answered. She realized he was right and apologized immediately than asking him if he could pinpoint where Claudius-Vitiate might be going. Surprisingly, he was already several floors down, likely heading out of the Palace and into a new spot. That was, until Maul said he was head for the underground floors of the Palace's bowels.

"I have enough power in my scream to create an opening down into the first underground floor. After that, I need to conserve my energy or else I will collapse and/or fall out of consciousness before having the chance to catch him once more," Ophelia said. Maul nodded and told her to do it whilst clearing some distance for her. She successfully cleared a path to the first of the underground floors then jumped through with Maul following right behind.

_You're lucky I need you alive or else I would have dropped your body at the instant she defeated you and tried to possess her! You should truly be more careful with the power I have given you in the future or else I may dump you regardless of my need for you _Vitiate hissed. "I realize that but keep in mind I've only had this power for a few weeks, going by the standard time of our dimension's galaxy and I still have much to learn! You may not know it yet but we have plenty of time for me to learn how to properly use your power since this elevator will take us down to the third underground floor, leaving only a descent down two more on foot," Claudius calmly replied.

He was surprised he could hold his temper in after having been practically killed by his own sister. Claudius anticipated many things but her attack on him was not among those things. It was one of few experiences that had ever actually caught him off guard but the good thing was that Claudius never made the same mistake twice nor would he be defeated the same way twice. Besides, the next point of entry was at the bottom of this Palace and directly on the wall in front of him once he opened the door into the fifth floor of the underground levels.

In fact, it was so direct that he could literally shoot at it with his portal gun the moment he entered the room. Smiling at the simplicity of the next exit, me made sure to let Vitiate know of it and even briefly gloated about this small victory against Ophelia and her friend. _Just get us there and perhaps I will forgive your failure this time but fail like this again and I will dump you and leave for dead unless that isn't an option for me _Vitiate vowed. "I assure you that it will never happen again because this is the last one before we finally reach Heraklion Prime itself," Claudius replied.

The thought of having only one more dimension to travel through before reaching Heraklion Prime must have sounded really good. Because Vitiate never spoke again for the rest of this last leg of the journey nor did he do so when they arrived at their point of exit. It was actually a kind of relief when he didn't speak up as it was to see that he still had the lightsabers he had stolen off Horus and Osiris when Ophelia killed them. He had a feeling he was going to be needing them again before too long and it wouldn't be Ophelia facing him this time.

Besides, how could one be sure if that warrior called Maul had _any _reservation about killing Claudius and ending his plans for the universe? It was better to be careful with one of his kind than to be sorry. Especially when it could mean the end of very intricate plans that had been years in the making. He activated the portal quickly and went through in less than an instant.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

Maul sensed the opening long before he saw it and he knew Ophelia sensed it too. This feeling could only mean one thing: that Claudius had somehow evaded them and opened a portal into the next dimension they were going to be in. Using the Force to increase their speed, they descended down the last two underground floors with all haste, barely missing Claudius but having enough time to follow him with the same portal he had used. "I feel something else besides this, it could only mean one thing," Ophelia began.

She didn't need to elaborate for Maul to know what she meant by that perceptive remark. "Either we have arrived at Heraklion Prime or we are very close to after all this time and all this tedious effort," he agreed. "It's far more power than I have ever sensed but I'm not sure if it's really Heraklion Prime. Only one way to find out as always," Ophelia said.

Together, they stepped into the next portal and waited for a few moments in the familiar white light that surrounded them at every angle, even under their feet. Then they arrived at the most unfamiliar scene that they had ever had to see in their travels. The only thing they saw to help them (which was not much but still something to go by) was a flag with red and white stripes across the entirety except with a blue square that contained fifty white stars. "One thing's for sure, we'll need to find cover until we can get a clue as to where we are in the universe," Ophelia said.

Maul could not agree more and pointed out a place that looked good to stop at. Using as much caution as they could (in spite of having to bump into a few people who got too close), they made their way to what looked like a safe haven for them. It was certainly a change from being unable to rest for fear that Claudius would get away from them again. They didn't know it but they had chosen to stop at what was called a Motel 6 at the coast of a place known as New York City in this dimension and what they knew as Heraklion was called Earth in this version of their universe.

Though Maul was confused about this environment and Ophelia was lost in the sights there were to see, he quickly found a way to pick up Claudius' trail once more. He decided that he would lock on to the Force energy Claudius gave off or else on the energy that Darth Vitiate created within the man's mortal body. To his surprise, it was much trickier to find either than he had anticipated but the deed was done nonetheless. Maul's guess was that either Vitiate had yet to teach Claudius how to mask their power or else Claudius had refused to learn, both of which sounded like really good things to consider later.

But for now, he needed to let Ophelia know that he had a lock on Claudius' present position. He even told her how it was not too far away from where they were and if they hurried, they could reach him quickly. Unfortunately, where they were going would soon be filled with millions of people if they were unlucky enough to be stuck in something that slowed them. "It seems to be what you would know as a concert back in our galaxy and I could barely make out the name of the person performing due to the writing but what I did make out was the name 'Justin' which might be a clue," he added.

"A concert may work in our favor if we move so let's stop blabbing and actually get going before he moves on to Heraklion Prime itself," Ophelia replied. Maul smiled in agreement and clipped his lightsaber back onto his belt before they proceeded out of the Motel 6 they had taken shelter in. Ophelia remembered how he had to use his lightsaber to persuade the clerk into lending him a room when the man didn't accept his credits. "You always have a backup plan, don't you?" she had asked to which he nodded in enthusiastic reply.

**One good thing about doing** research about interdimensional travel was that Claudius had done it long enough to know the basic alphabet of the dominant language in an area he entered. The language here was English which sounded every bit like Basic but had a writing style completely different from the Basic Aurebesh he knew back home. The place he was going to now to escape Maul and Ophelia was what these humans called a concert but apparently a very extraordinary one considering the crowd. Young teenage girls squealed with excitement and their boyfriends (or siblings, Claudius couldn't tell the difference) merely huffed in disinterest.

"I don't get why you like his music so much, it's literally shit," said one boy. "But he's so hot and his voice is cute!" replied the girl next to him before squealing again. Claudius went up to the boy after she left and asked who they were talking about. "It's just Justin Bieber, he comes to New York like every other week but I truly _despise _his music, ever heard him?" the boy replied, mildly surprised and a bit proud.

"No, never have and from the sound of what you're saying, I shouldn't," Claudius lied. "If you value your taste in music and your life, you don't because once your girl sees him in concert… Nine times out of ten you'll be having her beg you to take her to every concert possible," the boy explained grumpily. "Thank you for your input, unfortunately, I have to go by if not through the concert on the way to where I'm presently going," Claudius said before paying him for his trouble.

_I sensed a rather massive aura of disappointment and boredom about him. Could he possibly know something about where we're going? _Vitiate asked him. _No, not possible because he was just talking about how he hates a certain musician that his girlfriend happens to love _Claudius answered. He had lied about hearing Justin Bieber since he wanted to cover what he was going to do next: he was planning on killing Justin then frame Maul and Ophelia for the crime.

If they were not captured, at least it would stall them until Claudius found his way to the final portal point that would lead at last into Heraklion Prime. He still had his blaster with him but he didn't think he would want to make a mess of killing naïve boy who thought he was a musical god due to how many women would swoon and scream at him in stupid fanaticism but was in truth, nothing more than a boy who hid his pathetic excuse for the arts, behind artificial beats, light shows, and dances that could be schooled in virtually any concert back home. But if his plot was done right, he would be on his way to Heraklion Prime before Maul or Ophelia could pick up his trail again. Smiling, he made his way to the concert and called up the backstage pass that he had bought as well as the front seat reservation he made simultaneously; his enemies didn't stand a chance now that he had the aces up his meticulous sleeve.

**The good news was that** Maul and Ophelia managed to get to the concert before the crowd became too overpowering even for them. They even managed to get into the last of the front row seats before it began. However, Maul sensed Claudius' presence nearby and even saw him before long. "Ophelia, Claudius is over there," he whispered quietly.

Before she said anything, he told her to approach from the left side of him and he would approach from the right. "We can't afford him squeezing out of this like he did back in the other dimension we were at just days ago," Maul said. Ophelia nodded and made her way down the row that continued behind her and Maul did the same. His intention was to attack Claudius from each flank but with the crowd coming in, he might be slowed down a bit.

It angered him that these people were getting in his way and even saw what he looked like with looks of revulsion. "Get that thing out of here!" one woman said to her boyfriend or husband. Maul ran him through his lightsaber and told the woman to shut up before moving on to Claudius. But as he came closer to his target, he began to regret having killed that man with his blade just because he was coming near him.

Especially when Claudius turned toward him with both of the lightsabers already in his hands and needing only for the blades to be ignited. Maul quickly pulled out his own and ignited the blade just in time to meet Claudius' vicious assault head on. The good thing was that Maul had an upstanding knowledge of Form III Soresu's defensive maneuvers but what made it better for him was that with an experienced opponent like Claudius, he could easily rush back into his primary style of Form VII Juyo. Even with his impressive use of Jar'Kai considering that he had never handled lightsabers until he met Vitiate, Claudius' lack of experience showed when he began giving ground to Maul.

Unfortunately for him, Claudius had more tricks up his sleeve than even Darth Maul had originally anticipated. Claudius pushed him away with the Force before turning his attention to his escape route. He was angered to see that the concert was about to begin but the good thing was that he had no reservation about killing anyone who got in his path. Luckily, he only really had to strike down three people and wound two with Bieber amongst the dead having been scalped alive while Claudius began to make his escape through the stadium.

Darth Maul followed intent on catching his prey and ending this wild Bantha chase at last. However, Claudius had yet another surprise in store for him when they arrived at the entrance of an elevator shaft leading in only one direction: down. He jumped, ignited both blades on opposite sides of the shaft and lowered himself down at a fast but controlled rate, most likely due to a lack of confidence in the Force saving him if he made such a jump unaided by his weapons. Maul let him slide down halfway than followed him but jumping without the aid of his double-sided lightsaber.

When he landed, he immediately continued following his quarry to a harbor where massive ships were giving and taking cargo. Maul only knew one thing: his prey aimed to use one of the ships to get away from him and he couldn't let Claudius escape him once more only to threaten innocent lives another day. But Maul would not have cared if it didn't mean the end of all reality if Claudius had his way with his manipulation of travel between dimensions. At the moment though, he would have to be content to chasing Claudius to save his universe as he knew it in all its majestic glory.

**Ophelia couldn't believe** what she was going through after she separated from Maul. The police saw the scalped body of Justin Bieber and immediately assumed she was responsible for the crime. She tried to explain that her brother was responsible but the leader would not have any of it. "Where is your brother?" the police officer asked.

"My colleague is chasing him down right now and I will be sure to turn him to you when we've got him," she promised. She knew she couldn't afford to turn Claudius over to petty enforcers of petty laws made by normal people to keep them safe from themselves. Claudius was destined for the justice of the Republic assuming Maul didn't kill him first. She couldn't believe she was doing this nor was she confident she could pull it off but she knew she had to try for the sake of the mission.

"You did not see me here at all," she said, employing the Jedi mind trick against him. "I did not see you here at all," he repeated. She then told him that he and his officers would tend to the bodies of the dead and get medicine for the wounded. He repeated the instructions and began making his way to obey them quickly and decisively.

Of all the characteristics she shared with Maul, being a cold-blooded killer, even for a moment, was not among them. The good thing was she managed to avoid a confrontation with these beings that were human but were derived of any midi-chlorians in their bloodstream as far as she could immediately tell. One thing was certain now: she needed to find Maul then find Claudius if the two were not too distant from each other. It was the only hope she had considering that he had escaped her in the alternated Jedi Temple in spite of her use of the sonic scream; so now she hoped Maul had him in his clutches and had not yet killed her brother and Darth Vitiate.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

Darth Maul managed to corner his prey on a carrier that would have been departing were it not for an accident in loading up the cargo. An accident which Maul himself had caused to delay them long enough to give Ophelia the chance to reunite and help him finish this in a diplomatic matter. Regardless, they were at the end of the ship and Maul knew that even with Vitiate's deep wells of power, Claudius could never survive a swim across the ocean to wherever he was going. Claudius did the thing Maul expected most and turned to face him when confronted with having reached the end of the ship, reigniting both lightsabers as he turned.

However, now that he was at the mercy of Maul's skills with a blade, he knew he was going to lose this round and possibly his life. Fortunately, Maul held back and merely disarmed him by slicing both lightsabers in half at the hilts thus deactivating the blades permanently and leaving him helpless to Lord Maul. Maul spared him but held him at blade point, telling him not to move or else he would surely die. Claudius laughed and told Maul that he was a fool if he thought he could hold Claudius until Ophelia arrived. Maul asked him to explain why only to be answered by Claudius closing his eyes, tilting his head completely back, then erecting it and opening his eyes to reveal a red glow about them.

"Claudius has temporarily given me possession of his body so that I may show you a power you've probably never seen before," said the Sith Emperor, Darth Vitiate. Maul swung his lightsaber as far back as he could to decapitate him but then, quicker than he could strike, Vitiate turned into a black cloud and flew into the night sky. He left a trail of red light in his wake and though Maul had never seen this done before, he knew about trails like this well enough to know that Vitiate and Claudius were not done with this game of cat and mouse with him and Ophelia. And as if thinking of her acted as a summons, she arrived shortly after Vitiate took his flight and asked about the blood red trail.

"That would be Darth Vitiate having taken possession of your brother and transformed into a black cloud that leaves a red trail behind just so he could escape me," Maul answered. "Then let's waste no time, find a boat we can steal and let's follow him before we love that kriffing trail," Ophelia replied. Maul found one immediately and, in spite of Ophelia's protests about subtlety, ordered the owner to show them how to work the boat before then disposing of him. When Ophelia scowled at him, he told her that a principle of the Sith was to cut out all loose ends lest they end up making the Sith suffer for their error.

"Like it or not, confidentiality at all costs is essential right now. We can't afford to have more than Claudius and Vitiate to handle," he added. Sad thing was that though Ophelia despised his approach to _that _matter, she knew he was right and sighed to signal that she had nothing more to say. Maul got the boat going and told her to get some rest so that she could replace him when he became too tired to keep going.

Ophelia had never known rest for a long time and was glad when she managed to find solace in heavily sleeping for the first time since her training at the Temple began. Odette had insisted that she replace heavy sleeping with two hours of meditation and she knew that it would have been more beneficial to have done precisely that but in this case, she could not resist. As Maul cruised the fast little ship across the Atlantic Ocean, her mind went to places she hadn't been to since she was a little girl. At first, there was nothing but the darkness that came with sleep combined with a slight tinge of moonlight blocked mostly by her closed, sleepy eyelids.

Then she came across memories from her past on the Nyx system as well as her life as heiress to the Draconian Throne unless her father negotiated otherwise. She dreamed of playing with her two older sisters in their mother's garden that she had made specifically for them. That led into the old memories of when Claudius used to be a cheerful, hyper, and brilliant child with no capability of malicious for either himself or their beloved family. She remembered how her father would smile down at her with his battle-scarred but gentle face before taking her into his arms and swinging her around the air as he had done with Claudius when he was that same age.

It was a series of happy moments in her life that she never wanted to forget or let go of no matter how much Odette insisted she had to let go of these "attachments" as she called them. Then the happy memories began to take a dark turn that Ophelia had never forgotten even as a Jedi Knight. Juliet I became pregnant again shortly after Ophelia had turned three years old and initially, no one would have suspected it would bring dark tidings to them all. But that was before the Baron of Coriolanus' father Fortinbras had come to them under the guise of peace after years of bitter war and had instead poisoned the Queen's drink, killing her and the unborn child instantly.

Stupidly, Coriolanus had responded by sending twenty thousand warriors to lead the attack and wipe out the Baron's capital city to the last child. After that, he hastily wedded both of Ophelia's sisters to the sons of two of his allies, his Count and his Duke. Helena went to the Count's son who forcibly made her produce three children, only one of whom was a son. Juliet II went to a son who never even cared if they had children but had also produced a son for his father to call kin.

Suddenly, Ophelia noticed that only Claudius, Laertes, and Coriolanus remained in her lives save the very occasional visits of her sisters from their new homes miles away from this one. Laertes was in no rush to get married and instead allowed himself to be guided to every brothel within the immediate vicinity. Meanwhile, Claudius retreated into his books, experimentations, and business deals with offworld clients that provided cheap materials at expensive prices. Lastly, Coriolanus was swallowed up by battle plans to avenge his honor and kill Fortinbras personally.

The latter two were barely out enough and Laertes was out too often, forcing Ophelia to rely on the nurses and maids in order to have anymore fun. Whenever Claudius came out of his room, he always carried his dagger with him and told her that he had no time to play "childish games" with her right then. It had only taken two years for these changes to take full effect and it would be another year before the next section of her ominous reminder of the past came. Fortinbras' forces came bearing down on Coriolanus' Draconian Palace and Coriolanus had shoved Claudius and Ophelia up to the top of the highest tower along with Juliet who had returned due to the death of her new family during the war.

She remembered being the first one shepherded into the portal after it opened and being told that Juliet would follow shortly. The most traumatizing part of all that was that instead of Juliet as promised, Claudius was the one who came through the other side instead. He had told her that Fortinbras' soldiers had shot Juliet before she could enter but now Ophelia realized that that was not true in any way. Before going into close-ranged combat, Claudius always laced his dagger with a poison so powerful that even a simple cut had the poor victim lying dead in merely three to five seconds.

And since being scratched was bad enough, Ophelia could only imagine how quickly it would be over if one was stabbed directly. Her dream came to a conclusion when she looked up to Claudius and he pushed her toward Odette. She had never wanted to be separated from the only family she had left even if Claudius had become a cold-blooded engineer of genocide. "Now your new life begins even if you will not abandon this old one at first," Odette said.

Ophelia woke up screaming from the dreams and loudly since Maul was startled by the noise. "You were dreaming, were you not?" Maul asked. Ophelia nodded and Maul told her that it was about time for her turn at any rate. "It's quite easy once you get the hang of it," he told her.

And while she drove the boat onward, not worrying about fuel since Maul had made sure to fill the boat to its limits even in the emergency tanks, Maul slept without dreams. It was a wonder that he even slept at all considering that until now, he had relied on meditation and the power of the Dark Side in order to remain active 24/7. But he had to admit that it was good to actually _sleep _instead of drawing on the energies of the Force to continue going. It not only boosted his morale but for once, it gave him a sense of normality.

** Claudius-Vitiate arrived** at a U.S. Carrier shipping exports to China but they didn't know what these goods were. All they knew was that in order to reach their next destination in one piece, they would have to stop traveling as a mist at least until the following night when darkness would give them the least trouble in their travel. "Hey, you can't be back here!" said a worker almost immediately after they arrived. "I'm sorry but I have been traveling for a long time and I merely mean to rest before resuming my travels to my destination," Claudius replied, having made Vitiate retreat back into his mind.

"Oh so you've been swimming only to now catch this carrier in the ocean?" the worker asked him. "You have no idea," Claudius answered. "Oh so you'll be one of those guys, huh?" the worker retorted. Claudius shook his head and simply grabbed his neck in a Force choke, ending his life both quickly and cleanly.

After that, he donned on the workers uniform which barely fit his frame but well enough for no one to notice him. Especially since Vitiate had granted him the ability to metamorphose into another person or another animal. He disguised himself as the disgruntled worker he had to kill and tossed his body overboard before anyone would suspect a thing. The disgusting part was that he knew he couldn't stay in this form long, he would have to leave the following night in order to stand a chance of reaching the other side of the world before Maul and Ophelia caught up to him.

He already had knowledge of where he was going due to having planned his path before this. His destination was called the "Pyramids of Giza" and it was the biggest of the three that he wanted to be going to. At the top of the pyramid would be the next portal point and his entrance into Heraklion Prime. He had to admit that even with Vitiate's way of travel, it would still be up to a standard week before he reached that destination but it was better than waiting the months that traveling on this boat would take.

However, he wondered if Maul and Ophelia were traveling any faster on the boat they had and if they were closer to him than he originally projected. Then he used the keener sight of Vitiate's eyes to see where they were in the ocean. Surprisingly, from his position, they were only a few hundred miles out and rapidly closing in on him and Vitiate. He also noticed that getting to this point in the ocean was probably all the boat was going to be able to take with the way they were forcing it to stay at maximum speed.

Fuel was not a problem when compared with the fact that the boat was relatively old and slowly deteriorating, the rate of its inanimate end accelerating at the speed Maul and Ophelia were taking it to. However, a closer examination of the boat made Claudius realize that the boat was actually in a good enough shape to get them to China even under the pressure they were putting it through and keep a relatively moderate distance between themselves and Claudius. This revelation frightened Claudius almost as much as being defeated by Darth Maul and not knowing whether or not he'd be spared. _Make sure they never make it and perhaps we won't have to worry about destroying them a Heraklion Prime _Vitiate said.

_That's much easier said than done and at the moment I have no way of doing it without compromising this pathetic disguise _Claudius replied. _Then let me take over again for a moment and I can definitely get something done _Vitiate ordered. _No, I'm not stupid enough to let you do anything powerful again while my body is still recovering from that method of traveling we just undertook _Claudius said. Vitiate was silenced after that because it was then that the Sith Lord understood that while insane with power, Claudius was not arrogantly insane… yet that is.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

After weeks of travel, Maul and Ophelia finally arrived at a spot where Maul could faintly sense Vitiate's presence and Ophelia could sense Claudius' also. "They're headed just west of where we are," Maul said. "I was about to come to the same conclusion with my connection to Claudius," Ophelia agreed. After settling that, both of them continued to travel west through Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, eventually traveling through the war-torn nation of Iraq and even suppressing a minor threat in Iran though the soldiers of the U.S.A. had not been given a single moment to even find out about the threat, never mind who stopped it from becoming reality.

Finally, they arrived at the destination where Claudius-Vitiate's presence proved strongest for both Jedi Knight and Sith Lord. And when they did, they were impressed by the magnificent size of these monuments in spite of the lack of sophisticated technology to have built something like these back home. Long ago, the Sith and the Rakata had built similar temples but all had been long since deserted, raided, and sometimes destroyed. But these pyramids were unlike those ones just in the sense that for the most part, they were relatively intact, damaged only by the elements and minor raids inside their cold chambers.

And in the distance, Maul could just barely spy Claudius using the Force to raise himself up to the top of the largest of the three Pyramids of Giza. "Ophelia, your brother is ascending the top of the pyramid. Let's waste no time since Heraklion Prime is next after we finish here!" he shouted to Ophelia. She nodded and using the Force, they both enhanced the speed at which they ran, arriving at the pyramid within a matter of seconds then ascending to the top and catching up with Claudius very quickly.

"Hello brother, where are you going without giving your sister a hug?" Ophelia mocked. "To Heraklion Prime and to the destruction of _all _reality as well as the Force itself at last!" he replied. Ophelia moved on to the attack first but Claudius swiped her away with ease before Maul came to replace her. Briefly, Claudius and Maul clashed through martial arts combat with Claudius holding his own relatively well.

Then Maul mistakenly kicked Claudius toward the top of the pyramid instead of away from it, allowing Claudius to shoot an opening to Heraklion Prime with his gun. Smiling, Claudius retreated and dared Maul and Ophelia to follow him into the primeval dimension of their universe. Igniting one end of his double-sided lightsaber, Maul was the first to finish the climb up the pyramid and Ophelia did likewise. Both entered the portal but neither Ophelia nor Maul were prepared for what awaited them on the other side of the portal.

When the familiar light passed over them again, they saw an empty land, derived of life and with only a few lumps of boulders making the largest items on this version of their universe. However, at the far center of their location, there was a beam of light running across a gigantic lump of brownish-yellow stone. "Welcome to Heraklion Prime," Claudius began. Maul and Ophelia turned to face him and saw not only that he no longer had glasses but also bore the red glowing eyes of the Sith Emperor, Darth Vitiate.

When only silence ensued, Claudius continued with his informal and casual greeting complete with a lecture. "Before there were Light and Dark Sides to the Force, before there were Ashla and Bogan, before there was good and evil, before the struggle between Order and Chaos, before there was thought, before there was even life existing… There was only this place and before it was only the Force however, when the Force created this planet it did so in order to have a source that bound it to the physical universe. Then with the coming of life forms, came the illusion of free will and with that illusion came the damage to this planet that you see all around," he finished.

"All points in the universe originate here, inevitably?" Maul asked. "Inevitably yes but you cannot always hope to find this version just by putting in the coordinates from wherever you are at to this. You have to make several jumps with the connection of the Force to guarantee safety in interdimensional travel," Claudius answered. Maul remembered his master mentioning that his predecessor Darth Plagueis had learned to manipulate the midi-chlorians using the Force to do so.

Reflecting on Sidious' words, he wondered if Claudius had found something similar but for travel instead of immortality. "Brother, do you have any idea as to the madness of what you're doing? Darth Vitiate has led you here on a misguided concept that you would have eternal power but will strip it away from you firs chance he can get!" Ophelia begged. "On the contrary sister, _I _manipulated _him _with promises of power and grandeur in Heraklion Prime and I have a strong enough will that if we were to use the Core's powers to become one, I would still be partly me but key word is partly," Claudius replied with a malicious smile.

"You're insane and more so than I could ever be," Maul whispered with a tinge of anger in his voice. "Does it really matter? There are at least a thousand versions of me that are actually quite charming," Claudius mocked. It was after that comment that Maul noticed something Ophelia had done, surprising both him and her brother.

She had used the Force to pull out his portal gun, transmit some coordinates into it, then pointed it at the bomb Claudius had installed near the beam of light which Maul deduced as the Core. After that, she used the Force to fire the weapon and open a portal that the bomb fell into despite Claudius' attempt to prevent that happening. The portal closed soon after and Ophelia then brought the portal gun right into her lightsaber, destroying it before Claudius could hope to use it again. At first, he was incredibly surprised and even cried out in frustration at having been tricked by his sister but a second look and Maul realized he was faking it.

_Now he's really gone insane if he thinks he can take us on as he is _Maul thought. But as if to respond to his thoughts, Claudius punched a hand into the portal and started laughing wickedly as the full might of the Force came rushing through his body at a speed that increased his power several fold with each passing second. Ophelia watched in awed surprise and Maul slowly moved in to see if he could strike a fatal blow on Claudius though he had found one when it was already too late. Claudius had plunged deep into the depths of the Force itself and no mere lightsaber was going to make him come back out now.

**In the dark recesses of Claudius' mind,** Lord Vitiate knew the time had come to at last merge with his host and become one and the same with him. Only then could he hope to summon the power of his old army of Sith Lords to use as fuel in his quest to first destroy this impudent boy called Darth Maul then his Jedi friend, Claudius' sister. And it was only after these mortal fools had been disposed of that he would draw enough power from the Core to dispose of Claudius altogether and control the entirety of the Force as well as all reality by himself. Right now, he already was able to conjure up enough power to have destroyed an entire army of Jedi with little if any effort from him.

Sharing certain aspects of his ego as well as his physical entity with Claudius, both mortal and Sith Lord welded into a single being who represented power at its rawest and most untamed. Now he would show them the true power of the Dark Side of the Force, he would show them what the Bogan rebels had discovered in the beginning of time. But most importantly, he would show them the power that had once nearly led a magnificent Sith Empire to victory against the Republic.

**"We are one and we comprehend** all knowledge that there was and ever could be. Now we, Claudiate, can call upon the souls of Sith Lords, past, present, and future to fuel our power and help us destroy you before controlling the Force and eternity itself!" shouted the twisted combination to Maul and Ophelia. Ophelia ignited her lightsaber and took on a stance of Ataru but besides that, she was perfectly stunned by what she was seeing. Darth Maul, though normally fearless, was appalled by the grotesque combination that stood before him and his love.

The skin that once was Caucasian-white was now blacker than ink and covered the entirety of the body. In fact, the combination's eyes were the only features that showed visual difference from the rest of the blackened body. And they glowed a fierce blood-red that literally shone bright as flashlights as they examined the clawed hands that felt around for immediately available resources for a weapon to wield. A clawed hand brushed across a straight rod of stone and the fingers slithered their way in a full circle across the entire thing, which was only about as thick as the hilt of a lightsaber.

Wrapping the energies of the Force completely around the rod, he yanked it out of where it was standing and had replaced the stone pole with a blade that shone a malevolent orange and the hilt was designed like that of a sword. Maul and Ophelia moved for the attack, hoping to beat him an a mere duel of blades but Claudiate surprised them by turning the blade of the sword into an energy whip that lashed its way across the ground and rose the floor to destructive heights before making them collapse and nearly bury them in tons of cold stone. Though Ophelia was slow in strategy under stress, Maul had learned to improvise and already saw that with each stroke of the whip, Claudiate manipulated the environment immediately around him to destroy his enemies. He even used the whip bringing down some of the stone roof above them to prove this point valid and thought up a strategy as he went fighting.

"Ophelia, flank him! I'm going to try and pry that whip away from him," he shouted and Ophelia nodded, knowing precisely how to do that perfectly. Letting her get ahead, Maul kept one end of his double-sided lightsaber ignited and the other deactivated in the hopes that Claudiate only suspected it was a blade with an untraditional hilt design added to it. After letting her get ahead some ways, he proceeded to attack Claudiate head on in a Juyo stance. He barely arrived when Claudiate wised up and whipped Ophelia out of the picture before she could flank him as was planned.

Nonetheless, the beast had left the opening Maul was hoping for and he hacked across the chest of the monster he was now facing. Claudiate roared in pain and for a brief moment, it seemed as though he would fall over in death's grip. However, instead of that, Claudiate's wound immediately recovered and left not even a scar where Maul had struck. Awestruck, Maul noticed too late that Claudiate had turned his whip back into a sword and had risen his blade to attack with Djem So's raw and untamed power.

Maul switched into a Soresu style but only long enough to then surprise Claudiate by switching back into Juyo. For a long time, it was Claudiate's enhanced experience against Maul's aggressive use of Form VII Juyo and no end was immediately in sight. Then Ophelia managed to somewhat stem the tide of battle by using her sonic scream to distract Claudiate and give Maul yet another opening. He took it and wounded his enemy despite it later regenerating and continued to fight as ferociously as he could.

Then something happened and a voice penetrated into his mind, trying to speak to him through the Force. Or maybe it was the Force itself trying to speak to him which was possible on this version of Heraklion. While still fighting Claudiate, he opened his mind enough to let it come through and speak. _Darth Maul, we are the Voice of the Force and we must tell you that there is only one way to defeat this beast that threatens both us and you _said the Force in multiple voices feminine, masculine, and hermaphrodite.

_What is it you want of me? I'm a cold-blooded killer who merely does the bidding of his Master back on my version of this reality _Maul asked. _Even so you are the only one strong enough to stop Claudiate from destroying all reality and there is only one way that can be done without his regenerative factor _the Force answered calmly. Maul asked what way that was and the Force told him to connect Claudiate's whip to the core, it would take care of him from there.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen

Maul called out to Ophelia, who was initially too busy taking the brunt of Claudiate's assault to hear him speaking. And when she finally could, she said that she was a little busy then asked what it was he wanted. "Lure him towards the Core, I've got a plan that should work if executed correctly but first you have to get past him and run with me to the Core!" he shouted. Ophelia did as instructed although it was very difficult initially but once she arrived, Maul told her everything even as they were dodging blows from the whip as well as the aftermath.

Once they arrive, Ophelia asked what he had in mind after making it this far. "You're going to mock him into missing us and hitting the Core with his whip," Maul said. In the distance, they could vaguely hear Claudiate curse and vow that he would destroy them. "All that power and you can't even destroy one Jedi and one Sith when you could've destroyed the entire Council by now," she mocked.

"A problem I need to rectify right now!" Claudiate shouted in reply. The plan worked and the whip was curling around Claudiate's back before initiating its attempt at a deadly hit on its targets. "Follow me when I jump over the whip that way it wraps around the Core, the Force is guiding me on this and its Voice told me that if we did it, we would take away Claudiate's regenerative ability. I'd like to believe we can take some of that tremendous power with it too although the Voice didn't mention that," Maul explained in a hushed whisper.

Ophelia did as commanded and stood her ground against the incoming assault from her former brother who now was transformed into a being that consisted of him merged with Darth Vitiate for most effect pain and destruction in the universe. However, her worry nearly heightened into panic when she saw that the whip had turned into a flexible blade meant to slice them upon contact. But it was right at the moment it was about to hit Maul that he jumped over it with ease and he commanded her to repeat his example in the same way. With not much other choice, she jumped and barely missed the whip as well as being sliced in half.

The whip wrapped around the Core and Maul used the Force to make a knot in it, preventing Claudiate from being able to use it again. Then as promised, the Force itself struck back at the attack on its Core and began sapping power from Claudiate as if being offered a dinner that it had waited millennia for. First, Maul and Ophelia could both sense the absence of the regenerative ability after a while but then they sensed something more profound. The Force began reclaiming the souls Claudiate had stolen from it and putting them back in their proper places or into the void where they could be of no further use to him.

After that was done, it also deprived him of his whip and sucked it back into the Core as well where it would be remade into Force energy. However, Maul sensed that though deprived of the extra energy, Claudiate was still powerful enough to kill them if they made one false move. Unfortunately, Ophelia made the first move and gave him no room to plan a course of action in the absence of Claudiate's former power. She made her initial charge a run of Ataru but both she and Maul were surprised to see Claudiate put up a shield around himself that was powerful enough to deflect lightsaber blows and small enough to wrap around his body.

Maul was able to immediately deduce that the element of surprise and getting close to him would be the only certain way to defeat him. According to his research as well as recovered hologram footage from the battles of Vitiate's Empire, the Emperor had never been faced with a double-sided lightsaber though he had seen it in action before. With that in addition to the fact that Claudius never even suspected Maul had a blade hidden on the other side of his lightsaber, Maul formed his plan. He was prepared to start an initial charge with Juyo but he was knocked down and his lightsaber thrown out of his hands before he could even initiate the first stages of his plan.

The impact of the blow (which he realized had been a powerful Force-push from Claudiate) was so powerful that he was momentarily phased out but very lucky to be conscious. Ophelia continued the fight alone and had switched to the use of Djem So after her charge of Ataru had failed. It was then that Maul noticed the physical damage done to himself and Ophelia during this entire duel. Maul himself was shirtless, bleeding out of his mouth and nose, scraped along the entirety of his left leg from when he had jumped over the whip, and one eye was swollen shut.

Ophelia looked and fought like she was even worse however. The entire left side of her shirt was ripped off, exposing a breast, the sleeve of the right side was gone along with the gloves for both sides, the area between her chest and waist was gone thanks to the earlier blow she absorbed from the whip, the entire right sleeve of her pants was gone, a gash ran across the thigh of her left, and both of her boots were missing thus leaving her barefoot. She too was bleeding out of her mouth and also had an eye swollen shut but on the opposite side of Maul's which was on his left. Claudiate's Force shield apparently took a toll on her with every stroke she struck in combination with the use of Djem So demanding physical strength she could not keep up for much longer.

Maul's only regret was that he was too stunned to help her and was forced to expend all of his energy into recovering from the blow. During that time, he watched something he never thought would happen as it happened. Ophelia became so exhausted she stopped fighting altogether just so she could keep standing. _No foolish girl, fight until your last ounce of energy is spent then rest _he begged in his clouded head.

Unfortunately, the thought had not been sent to her through the Force and she barely registered Maul's expression of helpless terror as he watched. _You can do nothing to help her for it is her destiny to die here and become one with us _the Voice said, intruding into his head again. Claudiate laughed at Ophelia's miserable status and didn't even bother physically wrenching her lightsaber from her. Calling it to his hand without effort, he then rammed the blade through Ophelia's abdomen, nearly finishing her right in that instant.

Maul was almost done healing and decided that when he was finished, he would pretend to remain incapacitated until he could surprise Claudiate then end him. It was right when he finished planning that Claudiate turned toward him with Ophelia's lightsaber in hand, preparing to strike the Sith Lord down. "You lose," Maul said with a wicked smile. "Hardly, look around you," Claudiate said.

Then Maul heard something surprising: instead of continuing to speak with both voices, Claudiate first spoke in Darth Vitiate's ominous voice then in Claudius' malicious tone. "In spite of your courageous and admirable efforts, you and your Jedi friend have merely inconvenienced me, traitor!" Vitiate said. "However, I'm still human enough to enjoy taking my revenge in the oldest fashion: clean, quick, and by a lightsaber," Claudius added. Then both spoke simultaneously again: "Looks like we were right in our theories all along: kill you then proceed to the rest of reality as planned."

_Now is the time to unleash your true power upon your enemy, now is the time you strike against Claudiate and allow us to absorb Darth Vitiate back into us _the Voice demanded desperately. Maul didn't need the Voice in his head to know that was true and called his lightsaber to him right before Claudiate could slice him cleanly in two. "Oh, so you do still have a little fighting power left within you, considering your use of Juyo this should be interesting," Claudiate stated. "Oh no, I'm not going to continue my use of Juyo or even try to use Jar'Kai," Maul replied.

Before Claudiate could ask what he meant, Darth Maul turned his blade a hundred and eighty degrees then ignited the second crimson blade. "You're going to fight me… with that style?" Claudiate asked, fear rapidly mounting in the fusion's pathetic heart. "You've never had to battle against _this_, have you?" Maul asked. "I've observed people who wielded it beautifully but I never had to pit myself in battle against one of them!" Vitiate shouted.

Smiling, Maul called upon the energies of the Force as well as all his efficiency with the double-sided lightsaber in this final struggle for the fate of all reality. What he was already noticing was that Claudiate (in both halves) was more proficient with Jar'Kai than the whip and with the whip more than a traditional lightsaber. Their use of Makashi temporarily had Maul questioning whether he stood a chance but he adjusted to the formal style rapidly then resumed his attack. He was drawing Claudiate closer and closer to the Core as had been part of his plan and as he did so, Claudiate's desperation to survive increased faster than Maul had hoped which made him even more enthusiastic.

Then Claudiate made the error Maul was waiting for after many slashes across his chest, back, legs, and arms. Claudiate attempted to hack down at him in a sloppy form of Djem So to no avail. Darth Maul spared him no moment of mercy when he slashed him with both blades across the back then brought one side back down to stab all the way through his back and abdominal area. At first, time seemed to have frozen in its tracks then the Core revived in very much the same way it had when it had snagged Claudius' whip and extra power from them, though surprising Maul just as much as the first time had.

When it did come alive, hands made from the energies of the Force used the hole created by Maul's blow to plunge in and separate the souls of Darth Vitiate and Claudius. The effort was surprisingly painstaking but the Force managed to separate them but at a cost Maul would later be informed of. Claudius was spared and returned almost back to normal, Maul sensed no Force power in him but didn't want to take any chances. Unfortunately, the price he paid was partly confirmed when he screamed that he couldn't see a thing.

In return for having sought the greatest power that the Dark Side offered with little training and experience in how to control the Force, Claudius had been blinded. Then the Voice returned a final time to explain more about the price he had paid for his actions against all reality. _Not only is he blind and stripped of his power but he is also cursed to never die until he had served at least two hundred years doing good to the rest of the galaxy to make up for his cruelties as well as the murder of his sister. However, you have a brighter destiny and in return for having saved the universe we can grant you three wishes so long as not one concerns your future from here _the Voice explained. _First wish then: I wish for Claudius to be bound to a wrapping (with his arms across his chest) that is so strong that he can never hope to break free of it for twenty years and only opens enough for him to relieve himself when he needs to _Maul said.

_Would you like it to be sentient enough to know when he actually needs to relieve himself as part of your first wish? _the Voice asked. Maul said he did and the Voice's power immediately crossed Claudius' arm and wrapped him in a brownish-gold casing that was strong and flexible enough for him to move very minimally. _Your next wish _the Voice said. _To have Ophelia's lightsaber brought unto the steps of the Jedi Temple with a note leaving details of me out but explaining the mission and willing the lightsaber to any Padawan or Master that needs a new lightsaber _Maul requested.

When the Voice requested his final wish, Maul made it a very good one. _To return home with Claudius in tow, I will figure out how to get him into the authorities without revealing myself more than necessary _he said. The Voice chose to grant those wishes but before it did so, it thanked him and told him that Ophelia's soul would be used to heal it from the damage Claudius did on Heraklion Prime now that the body had been destroyed by its orange fires of cremation. It came as no surprise to Darth Maul when he realized that this was the last time he was going to see Heraklion Prime and possibly any trace of Ophelia that wasn't connected to the Force.

He was just glad that the journey was over and he had Claudius to take back with him as he had promised himself early on in the mission. "You did well Maul, you freed me when my sister could not even persuade me and I couldn't control myself," Claudius said. Maul corrected him to add _Darth _before his name and thanked him for the unnecessary compliment.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen

"You had all that power and yet you were defeated by a lesser being than yourself?" an inmate asked, shocked. "I was a desperate man who tried to use the Force to become a god when I was nothing compared to those I was fighting in combat. Now, I have paid the price at the loss of my sight and a temporary lack of mobility as you can see for yourself," Claudius replied. "What a stinking rip if you ask me!" the gruff man shouted loudly.

Claudius chuckled as this man who had become his caretaker fell asleep to end another night in Coruscant's maximum security prison guarded by elite security troops. And as he lied down in his flexible but unbreakable prison, he had to admit that to some extent, his caretaker was right about that. Undoubtedly, Claudius had brought it upon himself by doing what he had done but it was still a "rip" as his cellmate said it being. Still, he had to wonder if he could have done something to stop the manipulations of Darth Vitiate from making him do what he had done.

He wondered if by somehow resisting Vitiate from the first time the Sith Emperor's spirit had entered his body, this would never have happened to him. _What could have been and what was no longer matter nor would they make a difference even if they did _Claudius mentally reminded himself. Having been slowly manipulated into a consuming but alterable path to madness, Claudius allowed himself to forget that in spite of the manner in which his past deeds were achieved, he was hailed as a hero by many. He ended centuries of war without any military might despite having to see to the death of his father and grandfather in order to complete it.

And it was he who was sister to a prominent young woman who had become a martyr amongst Jedi and commoners alike. Her lightsaber eventually found its way into the hands of a young Human Padawan named Obi-wan Kenobi who used it while in service to Master Qui-Gon Jinn, a revered Jedi Master but known maverick to its archaic ways. Claudius had met Qui-Gon once or twice and both times had been in the company of a young man named Xanatos who he heard had killed himself while fighting Qui-Gon and Obi-wan on his wealthy homeworld. It was a shame the boy met such an untimely demise because, if he had known, Claudius would have given thoughts to hiring him as his Dark Jedi assassin in place of the one that Odette had killed.

Unable to sleep, his caretaker awoke and asked him why he thought the way he did about the fight between himself, his sister, and the dark warrior that had traveled with her in her efforts to stop him. "Darth Vitiate was a thousand years old at the time he launched his war efforts against the Old Republic to avenge Naga Sadow's defeat in the Great Hyperspace War. During that time, he learned many talents including the art of subtle Force manipulation that only two have been known to resist: Darth Revan and Darth Malak. I don't need to get into their history but the point is, his manipulation is so powerful in that its takeover of a person can be completed in days or years depending on what Vitiate wanted of someone. Living on the darkness of Malachor V after fruitless quests that began with his departure from the Empire he himself created in the image of Naga Sadow.

"Though he was immortal, he was not omnipotent and thus would be forced to draw upon the Dark Side on a planet with a significant affiliation with it until he found the more permanent solution to his problem: a fresh body to transfer his very essence into. Using the same essence transfer ceremony that Darth Bane is said to have attempted, he tried to dominate my will entirely when I encountered him and accidentally shot him during my studies in Malachor. At first, I thought he had failed to dominate my mind and destroy my spirit but now I realize what had really happened. First, he had manipulated me into the belief that he had failed then slowly poisoned my mind into the state it became before I landed in this uncouth place.

"I sought power, I sought the immortality he had already achieved, and I paid the price for failure. Now I am cursed to live at least two centuries unless the Force deems I have paid it before that. I am content to do its bidding for as I learned the hard way, no one can defy the awesome power of the Force without inevitably paying a hefty price. But personally, if I ever meet that dark warrior again I hope he will come to kill me for what I did to both of us by robbing my sister of this universe forever," he explained.

His oratory had helped the younger man to sleep better but Claudius was still restless as he had learned to be in the two weeks since his failure at the dimension he dubbed Heraklion Prime. What he hadn't told his caretaker was that in spite of being a Sith Lord, Claudius hoped that young man would make his best efforts to prevent anyone from making the same mistake Claudius had done and perhaps suffering a much worse fate. He hoped that the man's love for Ophelia would fuel his resolve to see to both things before he became one with the Force as well. After all, Claudius had extinguished what his people had called a Flame of Passion in the man, a connection fueled by a specific feeling (or feelings) between a man and a woman and made each willing to die for one or the other as Maul would have done for Ophelia and as Ophelia had done for him as well as the universe.

Now that Ophelia was robbed of them both, the warrior would have only one Flame of Passion if any left: the thrill of the hunt. The promise of killing a skilled warrior quickly or slowly would replace the flame that once burned brightly because of Ophelia. Though willing to live this fate that was worse than death without her, Claudius sincerely hoped the young man would think of him as a loose end or just something to destroy and would kill him in revenge. After all, it's what he had told his brother to be prepared for in his recent communication with him (or else be prepared for the warrior's arrival to Nyx as he added during that last communication).

All this had put a smile on Claudius' face and due to the content in accepting immortality if death was no option, he fell asleep peacefully. The smile lasted for several minutes after his eyes had closed then faded as slowly as it had appeared now that the dreams were beginning. With Laertes aware of the young man's existence, the dreams varied from certain deeds in his past (especially his most recent) to visions of possible futures that would occur. As Claudius awaited whatever end the future offered him, he knew he would be content no matter what happened to him now.

For as the Jedi were fond of saying, whatever happened was the will of the Force. He finally understood the meaning of their Codex which decreed there was no emotion, no ignorance, and no anger. If he had anything good to thank Lord Vitiate for, it was a better understanding of the Jedi Code. And despite the Sith Lord's attempts to break him, this actually made him stronger than he could possibly been before his travels through the dimensions of the universe began.

** Ophelia's death had not sat** well with Darth Maul in spite of having defeated her brother and cast the soul of Darth Vitiate into the void of Oblivion. Undoubtedly, the death of a four thousand year old Sith Lord had brought an increased respect for his skill in his Master. It also brought some attention from Sidious' own mentor, Darth Plagueis. "He has been trained well indeed, are you sure he can continue serving us despite the anger that goes unchecked in him for the death of the Jedi he had come to love?" the Muun had asked.

"Contrary to what you believe, it will make him serve our cause to destroy the Jedi even better. With nothing to hold him back, he will become a weapon of pure, raw emotion that neither Padawan nor Master can possibly stand against. When not in use, he will be contained but when needed he will be unleashed like a storm long overdue to begin," Sidious answered. And Maul knew he was right in spite of initial disagreements with his Master because with Ophelia dead, Maul now had a personal reason to hate the Jedi.

Before this mission that had tested his resolve and spirit, he had had the same reasons his Master and Plagueis for hating the Jedi and that had been the fall of the Sith a thousand years ago. But now, he had a passion for it that grew like a burning that grew stronger as it was fed more wood and dry tinder. A Flame of Passion as Ophelia's people had called it was fueling Maul's resolve to avenge her inability to love him by destroying the hated Jedi. His spirit may have been broken but let it be rebuilt so that it was only for destroying the Jedi and destroy them he would when his Master said so.

With a newfound respect for him, Plagueis watched Maul as he demolished the training droids around him then turned to whisper to Lord Sidious. Maul didn't care for what the old man obsessed with immortality had to say to Master unless it concerned the Draco family. Until then, Plagueis and his recitations could kiss Maul's ass for all he cared. Avenging Ophelia, himself, his master, and the entire Sith dynasty was all that mattered now; and all three Dark Lords knew that Maul would not have wanted it any other way for then life would no longer be interesting enough to live.


	20. Chapter 20

Epilogue

Another week had passed since Maul's hunt for Doctor Claudius Draco and now Sidious knew for certain that he had something he could use. His apprentice would be needing to resolve this personal affair and Sidious would be needing him distracted while he and Plagueis began the final stages of their Grand Plan. Smiling, he had summoned his apprentice in spite of Maul's newfound shortness in his normally controlled temper. "You summoned me, my Master," Maul said, more of a statement than a question but having some of the nature nonetheless.

"Yes, being aware of your personal predicament, I have stumbled upon something I may need you to do if not two things. First, I need you to go to Ophelia's homeworld and keep King Laertes (her oldest brother) alive as he has been attacked by local rebels recently. His incompetence makes him easy to manipulate through the Force and since his system is experiencing a crisis, manipulating him may fit with our ultimate goal. Secondly, _while _protecting Laertes if possible, I would like you to confirm a rumor that if true may not sit well with our Plan," Sidious answered.

"If it is a mere rumor, I should get to the bottom of it in no time, Master," Maul said. With zealous enthusiasm, Sidious assured his apprentice that it was no mere rumor. "Rumor has it that Coriolanus Draco, Laertes' father and predecessor, may still be alive. Not only that, but it is also believed that he has some affiliation with the rebels.

"Knowing what you told me about Coriolanus' supposed death alongside his father Fortinbras as well as your predicament, I thought this may interest you," he added with a twisted and malicious grin on his face. "I will go to the Nyx system and to planet Erebus from there. I will find out the truth of this rumor and protect him. My only question is for how long," Maul replied. "Until I tell you to kill him or simply to leave him," Sidious said.

Maul vowed it would be done and Sidious assured him that he had faith in his ability to accomplish this small mission after traversing many dimensions and fought a Sith Lord who had the power of thousands at his command. Then he gave his apprentice an additional but interesting detail to attend to during his mission and it was to be done before he even left Coruscant. "For the best possible success in this new mission, pay Claudius a visit and ask him if it may be possible that his father is still alive. Take any and all information he gives you to heart as you go about completing this extra detail of the mission but do not assume that he is telling the truth should he say no," Sidious ordered his young apprentice.

"It will all be done Master though I may despise the thought of seeing Claudius again," he replied. "I will make the proper arrangements and see to it that your meeting is immediately underway. Besides that, may the Force be with you on this new assignment that now has come with a personal touch on you," Sidious told him with another smile. Quickly, Maul boarded his Infiltrator _Scimitar _and was on his way to once again do his Master's bidding after only three weeks of rest from his last mission; but this time, Maul would be prepared for anything.


End file.
